Two abused children seized from maid

TWO children, aged nine and eleven, who were subjected to shocking abuse by a maid, have revealed that they have no memory of their parents who went to South Africa years ago and never returned.

The two, a boy aged nine and his sister, 11, were beaten repeatedly with sticks and sometimes detained for up to a week without going to school, a Bulawayo magistrate heard yesterday.

Pregnant Martha Manomwe (25), a domestic worker left by their parents to look after them, indicated she would plead guilty to a charge of ill-treatment and neglect of a child before Bulawayo Magistrate Tancy Dube.

Her trial continues today.

The boy, whose face was scarred by the abuse, was briefly called into court together with his sister, before they were escorted out in the company of their teacher who took them in after they told her of the abuse.

The boy said Manomwe was in the habit of assaulting them whenever they asked for anything or wanted to play with other children in the village.

The lad, whose face, head, neck, ears and back were full of scars, added: "She beat me with a stick saying I left a cow to be eaten by hyenas. I couldn't go to school as she kept me in the house for the whole week and my eyes were swollen. She also does not bathe us at all.

"I've never seen my father and my mother . . . they have never returned from South Africa."

The girl said they were beaten "everyday", adding: "My mother and father are in South Africa but they've never come home. I don't know the reason why she always beats us with a stick everyday."

Her brother said his eyes were swollen for the whole week and they healed without going to seek treatment.

Magistrate Dube quizzed Manomwe, from Mbonqane in Umguza District, over the abuse.

On the alleged abuse of the boy, she replied: "I was preparing to go to the clinic and I had sent him to look for cattle but he did not bring them."

Dube probed further: "Are you referring to this boy when you say you had sent him to look for cattle? And all those scars are a result of you assaulting him?"

Back-pedalling, Manomwe - who told the court she's a niece to the children's mother – claimed the scars on the boy's face were from injuries he sustained when he fell from a tree.

The magistrate asked the teacher to continue taking care of them while social workers are contacted.
"How can we contact the Department of Social Welfare? We have to take them as children in need of proper care," she said. "If their parents cannot take care of them the State will do."

Frank Ncube, prosecuting, told the court that the girl was repeatedly assaulted for failing to carry a 20-litre bucket of water, while the boy had suffered worse abuse for little things like failing to round-up cattle.

On Tuesday this week, the two children arrived in school so severely traumatised that their alarmed teachers called in the police.

The boy is in Grade One while the girl is in Grade Four at Mbonqane Primary School, about 30km along the Bulawayo-Solusi Road.