Owen Vundla (42) of Nkayi was sentenced to 6 years in jail for fatally beating his neighbour’s 7-year-old son to death. The incident happened in 2008, and Vundla caught in February 2016 after he had gone on the run. It was alleged that Vundla beat up the victim and his own son after they had absconded from school. However, while taking them to school after the assault, the victim collapsed along the way and died.
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Maxwell Takuva, who is on circuit in Hwange, found Vundla guilty of culpable homicide and not the more serious charge of murder. He sentenced Vundla to 6 years in jail with two suspended on the condition that he does not commit another offence in the next 5 years. In passing sentence Justice Takaendesa said:
The court took into account that you are a first offender and the courts treat first offenders with leniency. They are spared jail life wherever possible. A plea of guilty is rewarded because you didn’t waste the court’s time. The court also considered that you are contrite because in some way you compensated the family and it’s also mitigatory that your home was destroyed and that you spent 12 months in pre-trial incarceration but that’s because you became a fugitive.
Recently the High Court outlawed the beating of children at home and at schools.
More: Herald
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