Woman, sons gang up to resist arrest

There was drama recently in the Empumalanga township of Hwange when a 46-year-old woman teamed up with her two children to resist arrest following a report that she had unlawfully borrowed money.

Four police officers had to seek back-up after Monica Ndlovu hurled insults at them before her children Nyasha Chikangira (22) and Ngoni Chihuri (18) armed themselves with an iron bar and stones in an effort to save their mother from the long arm of the law.

Ndlovu who appeared before provincial magistrate Miss Lindiwe Maphosa on Friday with her children Nyasha and Ngoni, facing a charge of undermining authority and resisting arrest, pleaded not guilty.

The court heard that on 17 March at around midday four constables proceeded to house number 1419 DRC Empumalanga where they found Ndlovu at home.

After introducing himself, a Constable Masuna told her that she was under arrest for unauthorised borrowing and she got inside the house while the officers followed her.

After noticing that they had followed her, Ndlovu started hurling insults at the officers, calling them neighbourhood watch committee members who had no authority to arrest her because they earned peanuts.

She went on to hold Const Masuna by the collar of his shirt while pushing him around before her two children joined in and armed themselves with an iron bar and stones threatening to unleash terror on the officers if they ever touched their mother.

Const Masuna then instructed his fellow officers to handcuff Ndlovu. However, when they tried to cuff her she resumed insulting the law enforcers, repeatedly calling them "small boys who cannot arrest me because of your ranks".

This led to Const Masuna calling the station for back-up, resulting in the arrest of the three.

Ndlovu and her children denied having resisted arrest but insisted that they were going to hand over themselves to the police.

"We were going to hand ourselves over to the police at the station. We did not resist arrest but we decided that it was proper that we went there ourselves," said Ndlovu.

They were convicted and fined $50 each.

Mr Tinomupeyi Mbiza represented the State.