A 30-year-old Mutare woman has been arrested on allegations of severely assaulting her 10-month-old baby girl following a video which went viral over the weekend.
In the 20 second-long video, the Mutare woman is seen assaulting her baby girl with a stick, while ordering her to crawl. The baby who is facing downwards is also ordered to keep quiet as she cries helplessly. National police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi said the assault took place at Temberere Village, Zimunya, in Mutare on Friday.
"The incident came to light after a disturbing video went viral on social media, showing the woman brutally attacking the child while ordering her to be quiet and forcing her to crawl."
In another video, following her arrest, she confessed to the offence and said that the father of her child was not paying maintenance.
The arrest comes after three other women from Nyanga were last week jailed in separate cases for physical abuse.
Police in Chivhu have arrested Omega Chemhere (21) in connection with a case of concealing the birth of a stillborn baby girl. Chemhere allegedly disposed of the body in a bin at a school in Chivhu on Wednesday last week.
Tinotenda Kutsanza (24) of Chigura Village under Chief Saunyama in Nyanga appeared before the Nyanga Magistrates' Court facing assault charges. She was sentenced to nine months in prison, of which three months were suspended for five years.
She will serve an effective six months in prison. In August Kutsanza and the complainant were seated in her kitchen when she poured boiling water on her. The complainant tried to run away but Kutsanza caught up with her and punched and kicked her. Another villager intervened and restrained Kutsanza. The complainant sustained burns on the right hand and breast.
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In another case, two women aged 20 and 50 from Village 14A in Nyanga appeared in court on physical abuse charges. The two were sentenced to three months each in prison which were wholly suspended on condition that they perform 105 hours of community service each. On September 29, at around 8pm, the complainant aged 26 returned home from a three-day visit in Nyanga.
The women then called the complainant who is their in-law to the kitchen and asked her where she was coming from. The complainant explained her whereabouts and this escalated into a misunderstanding.
The two were not satisfied by her explanation and the 20-year-old woman went to the complainant's bedroom and started throwing her belongings outside. She then returned to the complainant and pushed her outside the kitchen, punched her in the face four times and kicked her while the other woman was holding her hands. She sustained injuries as a result of the assault.
