Electric cord assault teacher fined $200

A TEACHER who burst into tears as she begged the mother of a pupil she assaulted with an electrical cable to withdraw the charges before the matter could be heard in court, has been fined $200.

Olivia Ndlovu, 58, a teacher at Bulawayo's Hillside Primary school, assaulted the Grade Seven pupil for being "dull" sometime between January and February this year.

Sentencing Ndlovu who has been a teacher for the past 37 years, magistrate Tinashe Tashaya described her actions as barbaric.

"What you did is barbaric and uncalled for especially when done by a teacher. The medical report reveals that the pupil sustained bruises on his arms, hands and back. You're therefore fined $200 or go to jail for 30 days," said magistrate Tashaya.

"Six months are wholly suspended to five years on condition that you don't commit a similar offence for the next five years. "If you break the law and commit a similar offence within the next five years, you'll be sent to prison without being given an option to pay a fine."

Tashaya told Ndlovu that as a teacher, she should have known how to discipline the pupil. Through her lawyer, Nozabelo Ndlovu, Ndlovu told the court that she had not intended to harm the pupil.

"My client having been in the teaching service for 37 years, didn't intend to harm the pupil but to motivate him to take his school work seriously. She thought every child should be disciplined," she said.

Ndlovu had pleaded guilty to two counts of assault. "I admit that I assaulted the pupil. I used a rubber stick not an electrical cable to assault him. It wasn't my intention to cause him bodily harm.

"I was trying to intimidate him. I want him to take his school work seriously and become a better person in future," she said.