The Sunday News
Fairness Moyana Sunday News Correspondent
A BINGA woman heaved a sigh of relief when she was slapped with community service instead of a three-month jail term after she scalded her husband’s privates with boiling water during a domestic dispute over their four-year-old daughter.
Sibonisiwe Mdadzu (27) from Siadindi Village in Binga, who had a one-night stint in jail begged the magistrate, Mr Stephen Ndlovu, not to send her back to prison after pleading guilty to contravening the Domestic Violence Act.
Prosecuting, Mr Bruce Maphosa told the court that on 24 March this year Mdadzu had a misunderstanding with her husband, Jabulani Mutale, at their homestead over where their daughter was going to be staying as she wanted to travel to Lusulu to seek medical services. Mutale was angered when she told him that she was going to leave their daughter at her mother’s, resulting in an argument.
The misunderstanding soon generated into a physical fight as Mdadzu picked a stone and threw it at her husband, narrowly missing him.
When he started attacking her with fists, she ran into the kitchen hut with Mutale in hot pursuit.
Cornered in the hut, she reached for a pot with boiling water and splashed it on the unsuspecting Mutale, scalding his stomach, ribs and private parts. He was lucky to get away with five percent superficial burns, with the medical report indicating that his injuries were not likely to cause any disability, giving Mdadzu a lifeline.
“I’m going to consider that your children are dependent on you and the remarks of the medical report in that your husband did not suffer major burns.
“However, this type of behaviour should not be condoned and in cases like these a custodial sentence would deter would be offenders,” said the magistrate before sentencing her to three months imprisonment which he wholly suspended on condition she performs 105 hours of community service.
