By A Correspondent

A 42-year-old woman from Maramba village, Chingwizi, Mwenezi, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of abusing an orphaned boy under her care.

The Mwenezi Magistrates’ Court heard that Mateure Manyengedze subjected the eight-year-old boy to severe punishment after he accidentally soiled his blankets while sleeping. In a fit of rage, she forced him to consume his own feces before beating him unconscious with a plank. She then confined him in a goat pen for the remainder of the night.

Manyengedze had been entrusted with the boy’s care after the death of his mother last year, and his father’s whereabouts remain unknown. The abuse was uncovered when the boy reported his ordeal to other villagers.