Accused's mum hurls insults at court officials

A WOMAN went berserk and hurled insults at court officials after a Hwange magistrate convicted her son for stripping his Grade One class, before ordering the minors to stand on a desk while he fondled their private parts at a school in Dete last year.

The woman who could not immediately be identified but is suspected to be mother to Namatai Mudhara had to be dragged outside the courtroom after she started cursing loudly, disrupting proceedings as soon as provincial magistrate Mrs Portia Mhlanga-Moyo passed her verdict on the 22-year-old former teacher.

She sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment which was wholly suspended on condition he performs 630 hours of community service at ZRP Hwange. After being forced outside by the police officers, Mudhara's mother went on to launch verbal attacks on anyone she came across as she paced up and down the complex before prison officers threw her out of the building.

"We were shocked to hear an emotionally charged woman cursing on top of her voice as she paced about the complex. It was then that we got word that she was reacting to the verdict that had been pronounced on her son who was facing indecent assault charges. What was very surprising was that the sentence had not even been passed when she exploded and her failure to control her emotions saw her insulting anyone who dared to look at her," said a court official who refused to be named.

The court heard that between 24 and 25 October last year Mudhara lined up his class and told them to enter his storeroom one by one. In the storeroom he would make the children to stand on a desk, lower their skirts or shorts to knee level before inserting his finger into the girls' private parts and telling them to bath arguing that they were smelling.

As for the boys, Mudhara is alleged to have touched their private parts before pulling back the foreskin and accusing them of not bathing. In all these occasions it is alleged that he told them not to tell anyone. However, some of the children told their parents that they had been ordered by their teacher to bath.

Further enquiries by their curious parents led to the discovery of the abuse resulting in villagers besieging the school, demanding Mudhara's head. A report was made to police resulting in his arrest.

Mudhara through his lawyer, Tonderai Mukuku of Ndove, Mukuku and Marondedze Legal Practitioners claimed that villagers in the area were framing him because of his tribe as they accused him of "stealing their children's jobs".

"Your worship, I deny all the charges being laid against me; I did not commit the things I stand accused of. The parents of these children are framing me for being a Shona speaker.

"They have accused me before of stealing their children's jobs by being posted at the school ahead of a local. I pray that the court may acquit me of all the said charges," said Mudhara.

The initial 24 counts levelled against him were revised to 15 after it emerged that some of the complainants whose ages range from six to eight years had transferred and could not be located while the others denied having been abused.

Mr Onias Nyathi prosecuted.