AN 18-year-old Marange woman who gave birth to a bouncing baby boy recently and buried him in a shallow grave in a garden has been sentenced to a total of 18 months in prison.
COURT REPORTERS
Sophia Nyangani of Katsadzwa village Chief Marange was convicted on her own plea to infanticide when she appeared before magistrate Anniah Ndiraya on Wednesday.
She was, however, spared jail after six months were suspended on condition of good behaviour, while the other 12 were set aside on condition that she would complete 420 hours of community service.
Charges against Nyangani were that on November 9, she delivered a bouncing baby boy in a bushy area and wrapped him with a piece of cloth and returned home. Nyangani later dug a shallow grave and buried the baby alive.
Investigations were carried out by the village elders as to what had become of Nyangani’s pregnancy and it was established that after giving birth alone in a secluded place, she proceeded to bury the baby.
After some days, the remains of the baby, which were decomposing, were finally exhumed.
The body was referred to Mutare Provincial Hospital for post-mortem, leading to Nyangani’s arrest.
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Nyangani told the court in mitigation that she had decided to kill the baby after her boyfriend denied paternity.
In a related development, another 18-year-old Harare woman, Melissa Makavani, was last week slapped with a nine-year jail term for killing her baby and dumping the body in a shallow drain filled with water after tying its hands with a cellphone charger code as she proceeded to enjoy herself at her boyfriend’s house.
The chilling incident occurred on December 23 last year at Dzivarasekwa 3, where the young woman was residing.
Makavani is said to have lied to her housemates that she intended to dispose of the litter when she strapped her baby on her back and proceeded to a maize field between Dzivarasekwa 3 and Dzivarasekwa Extension in the cover of darkness.
Justice Joseph Musakwa, who jailed Makavani, heard while she was at the secluded place, the accused struck the baby at the back of the head and above the left eye with an unknown blunt object after which she went on to tie the baby’s hands using a charger code and threw the body into a shallow drain filled with water.
