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Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
A SILOBELA housemaid began a two-year stretch in jail yesterday for assaulting a 10-month-old baby until he bled from the nose as punishment for trying to leave the house.

Vimbai Machokoto, 20, was convicted on her own plea of guilty to assault by Kwekwe resident magistrate Taurai Manwere.

In passing sentence, Magistrate Manwere said the maid was barbaric, cruel and uncivilised for viciously attacking a defenceless 10-month-old baby.

Manwere said such offenders should not be allowed to go scot free.

“You used severe force to assault the baby and therefore it was a severe assault which should not be condoned,” said Manwere.

He said according to the doctor’s report that was presented in court, the child was likely going to develop permanent head injuries as a result of the assault.

“The accused is therefore sentenced to 24 months in prison of which eight months are suspended on condition the accused does not commit a similar crime for which upon conviction will be sentenced to imprisonment without an option of a fine. So the accused will serve an effective 16months,” said Manwere.

Machokoto was employed by Gertrude Mugore, the wife of a police officer based at ZRP Camp Silobela.

As Mugore left home, she told Machokoto not to let her son out of the house as there was an inspection at the police camp, and when he attempted to do so, the maid assaulted him.

Asked by the magistrate last week why she abused the toddler, Machokoto said she assaulted the baby to stop him from leaving the house. She said she wanted to stop him from messing the house and yard which she had cleaned in anticipation of the inspection.

“He wanted to go out of the house to play but I’d been instructed by his mother not to let him go out since there was an inspection in the police camp,” said Machokoto.

“So I beat him up because if he had gone outside, he was going to soil the veranda and the yard which I’d cleaned.”

A visibly shocked Manwere asked the maid if she was “normal” to assault a 10-month-old baby over such a trivial matter.

Fortunate Mbizvo, prosecuting, told the court that on Tuesday last week, at a house at ZRP Camp Silobela, Machokoto was left with the baby by her employers.

When Mugore returned home around 1PM she was told that her son was asleep.

Around 2PM, Mugore became suspicious why the child was still asleep and went to investigate. She opened the blanket that was covering her son’s face and discovered that he was swollen and blood was coming out of his nose.

“Mugore questioned Machokoto about what had happened to her son and she lied that he had fallen,” he said.

Mbizvo said Mugore took her son to the police where it was observed that he had been beaten up leading to Machokoto’s arrest. The baby was taken to hospital.

In an interview outside the court last week, Mugore advised parents and guardians to carefully select their maids. She said Machokoto’s conviction was not going to remove the scars left on her son.

“I didn’t think that it could happen in my own home. I saw a video clip of a housemaid from Uganda abusing a child and I never thought that it could happen to my child. I’m so down,” she said.

In December last year, a Ugandan maid was sentenced to four years in jail for assaulting a toddler in a case which sparked outrage across the world after a video was released. Jolly Tumuhiirwe, 22, was filmed beating, kicking and stamping on the 18-month-old child.

Last week, Bulawayo High Court judge justice Lawrence Kamocha sentenced another maid who wrapped a 10-month-old baby in a heavy blanket and stashed him in a drawer for making “too much noise”, until the baby suffocated.

Justice Kamocha convicted Violet Moyo, 22, of Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park of murder with actual intent for the death that occurred on February, 1, 2013 when she was left by the baby’s parents in her custody.

The court heard that Moyo fed the baby with porridge before she went to the bedroom and put the baby to sleep.

After about five hours, the baby woke up and started crying and Moyo tried to calm him but her efforts were in vain. She put him in a drawer, closed it, and went to watch television.

“Moyo killed the innocent infant in a very cruel and brutal manner. Indeed stories of domestic workers committing all sorts of crimes against their employers’ children are always in the newspapers, but sadly despite those media reports, the perpetrators seem undeterred. Time has come for such people to be dealt with in a harsh and adequate manner,” said Justice Kamocha.

“You admitted that you suffocated an innocent infant by wrapping him in a heavy blanket and stuffing him in a linen drawer with limited air circulation like a parcel. Despite the baby’s distressed cry, you chose to ignore him and went to the lounge to watch a movie, which is quite clear that you really wanted to kill him. You are accordingly found guilty of murder with actual intent.”