Vaidah Nzanga (20) was sentenced to 5 years in jail after she left a bucket full of hot water unattended resulting in it spilling and burning her employer’s two-year-old child to death. She will however serve three years in jail after Harare magistrate Hosiah Mujaya suspended two years on condition of good behaviour.
In his ruling, Mujaya said Nzanga showed a high degree of negligence after working as a maid and staying with different minors for five years. He said that sentencing her to a non-custodial sentence would be setting the wrong precedence for would be offenders. Nzanga apologised to the family in court, saying it was an accident and she did not leave the bucket full of hot water intentionally.
The court heard that on March 13 at around 5pm, Nzanga and the now-deceased Tanaka Chimusaru were at home when she took a 10-litre bucket full of hot water intending to use it for bathing, but left it in the passage to attend to the door. While she was closing the door, Tanaka ran through the passage and hit the bucket resulting in the water spilling onto his whole body severely scalding him.
More: NewsDay
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