Dad in court for injecting daughter with poisonous substance

Danisa Masuku
IN an emotionally charged trial, a woman sobbed in court as she questioned her father and her cousin over why they injected her with a poisonous substance, causing her to suffer from a kidney disease and spend eight months in hospital.

Kudakwashe Chabata (74) and Manenji Chipwanya (52) appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Challenge Mahembe facing an assault charge. They pleaded not guilty.

However, at the completion of the trial, they were each convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment which were wholly suspended on condition that they do not commit a similar offence within a period of five years.

In his defence Chabata said: “I feel disheartened. While I was in rural areas where I stay a relative phoned me and told me that my daughter was very sick.

I had to come to Bulawayo and approached a certain man who helped me with a concoction which I injected into her with the intention of getting her healed. I’m really sorry for that. I didn’t know I had courted trouble for myself.”

In a victim impact statement Jenniter Chabata (38) said: “After they injected a certain muti into my shoulders I felt dizzy and I was later rushed to hospital. The doctor diagnosed that I was suffering from a kidney disease. I spent eight months at the hospital.

“And they did not pay for my medical bills. Even now I feel hurt when I look at them as they put my life in danger and they wanted to kill me. I want them to be jailed.”
Chipwanya expressed his remorse during cross-examination and said: “I stayed for a long time without visiting them and now I regret because I thought I was helping her. Lack of knowledge has led me to this problem.”

The court heard that sometime in August Kudakwashe and Chipwanya went to Jenniter’s home at Harrisvale suburb in Bulawayo and found her just arriving home.

They grabbed her by her hands before injecting a muthi into her shoulders.

After that, the court heard, Jenitter fell sick and was transported to the hospital where she was diagnosed with kidney disease. She spent eight months in hospital.