A woman from Binga was recently arr3sted on charges of murd3r after sitting on her 2 year old baby to d3@th.
The woman, Shuvai Machongwe(35) is from Chalisenga 1 Village under Chief Sinakatenge.
Machongwe suffers from a mental disorder and is not able to control her actions therefore High Court Judge Justice Christopher Dube-Banda dismissed her case saying that she should not be held legally responsible for it.
The judge ordered that the woman must be sent to a psychiatric hospital because she was deemed to be a danger to people around her.This was due the severity of her mental disorder .
The eye witness Thandiwe Munsaka testified that on May 2 2023 , her co-wife was behaving in strange ways.
“She sang church songs the whole night and she was pacing up and down. She never slept,” she told the court.
Six days later, Munsaka went to fetch water from the river leaving Machongwe with their daughters, including the d3ceased Gaudencia Sibanda.
Upon her return, she learnt from her minor daughter that Machongwe had left home for the shopping centre with the d3ceased.
At around 1200 hours Munsaka followed Machongwe upon realising she had taken too long to return home.
“They got information that the d3ceased had been observed going into the bush.
“The two tracked the @ccused’s footprint until they found her sitting. They observed that the accused was sitting on top of the d3ceased,” the court heard.
Munsaka then sought assistance from two men, Addlord Sabasa and Edmore Mwinde who apprehended the @ccused.
The court heard Munsaka picked up Machongwe’s daughter who was no longer showing any signs of life.
The prosecutors presented two pieces of evidence which included a postmortem report and a psychiatric report.Both pieces of evidence were approved by the court and considered as valid evidence .
“In my opinion, there is a reasonable possibility that at the time of the alleged crime, the @ccused was suffering from a mental disorder (schizophrenia). She was mentally disturbed to such an extent that she should not be held legally responsible for her actions. She is dangerous to society and needs a special verdict to return,” said Dr Poskotchinova who examined her.
The judge ruled in her favour saying that Machongwe was not guilty because she was mentally ill.
SOURCE : NEW ZIMBABWE
