Woman assaults landlady, causes miscarriage

A 23-YEAR-OLD Plumtree woman has appeared in court for beating up her landlady until she had a miscarriage, as payback for unfair eviction. Lydia Ndlovu (23) appeared in court facing charges of assaulting Samukeliso Ndlovu (31).

The court heard that Lydia punched Samukeliso on the stomach and as a result she lost her five-month pregnancy.

Lydia denied the allegations, claiming that she was not responsible for the complainant's loss.

"I did not hit the complainant Your Worship. Instead I met her and just gave her a harmless pat on the back as a way of greeting her since she is someone I know.

"I have no beef with her and there is no reason why I would have assaulted her. She might have lost her pregnancy but it was not because of me. Besides I heard rumours that she lost a baby sometime back and I refuse to be held responsible for this particular loss," she said in her defence.

Samukeliso, however, insisted that Lydia had punched her and she demanded her baby back from the complainant.

She told the court that Lydia punched her as punishment for chasing her out of her house.

Samukeliso said her sister left her in charge of a house in Garikai where she was living with Lydia.

"My sister left me in charge of her house where I was staying with Lydia. I later advised my sister that I wanted Lydia to move out of the house as I did not like her lifestyle. My sister gave me the go-ahead to evict her and that is what angered Lydia because she stopped talking to me from that day.

"I did not like the way Lydia lived because she would invite different men into the house. Some of them were heavy drinkers and they would cause a lot of commotion in the house," said Samukeliso.

She said Lydia punched her on the stomach and when she arrived at her home she realised that she had lost her baby.

The complainant said she incurred huge costs in getting medical help following the incident.

Prosecuting, Ms Jane Phiri told how Lydia is alleged to have punched the complainant on 24 August.

"The complainant was on her way to Garikai area around 9pm with her husband and she met the accused person. The accused person demanded to know why they were travelling at night and she punched the complainant once on the stomach and fled from the scene," said Ms Phiri.

Plumtree magistrate Mr Gideon Ruvesta remanded Lydia in custody to 15 September for continuation of trial.

Lydia recently appeared in court after beating up her 40-year-old drinking partner with an empty bottle for stealing her beer during a drinking spree.

She was in the company of Sithembekile Ndiweni at a nightclub and she bought herself a bottle of beer and left it on the table and proceeded to the toilet.

On her return she discovered that her beer was missing and was convinced that Ndiweni had taken it. She hit her with an empty beer bottle on the head and injured her. She was sentenced to 210 hours of community service for the offence.