BULAWAYO residents have expressed disgust following the arrest and jailing of a woman who reprimanded minors who were hosting a Vuzu party during learning hours.
In a video circulating on social media, Panashe Mpofu, from New Luveve, has been at Mlondolozi Prison cells since November 14, jailed for disciplining four Form 2 learners, her child included, after they hosted a Vuzu party.
She was reprimanding them for being truant during learning hours.
“It was on a Friday when I came back home from church. People told me that my son and his friends were having a party at a house nearby, that they had bunked school,” Mpofu is heard as saying in the video.
“I (went there and) found them drinking beer. I beat them all, stopping them from their shenanigans.
“However, one girl’s mother then said I was not supposed to beat her child and reported me to the police.”
Mpofu said she spent the night at Luveve Police Station, until the following day when she was released by the police, who urged her and the girl’s mother to resolve the issue amicably.
However, the girl’s mother took the matter even further.
- Revisiting Majaivana’s last show… ‘We made huge losses’
- Edutainment mix: The nexus of music and cultural identity
- ChiTown acting mayor blocks election
- Promoter Mdu 3D defends foreigners 30 minute set
Keep Reading
“On November 13, I was told to come to court the following day. I spent the night at Mlondolozi Prison again,” she said.
“When I went to court, there was no one except the guards. They told me that I had been sentenced to two years in prison for my offence, but they were going to deduct six months.
“When I said I wanted to present my witnesses, they said my issue did not have witnesses, of which all my witnesses were there, but were not given a chance to say anything, leading to my fate.”
Bulawayo residents now want Mpofu’s case revisited.
They want her to be released from jail considering the fact that she left behind her child at their rented house with no one to look after him until she is released in 2026.
“How do our arms of State function? The Judiciary interprets the law in a very funny way. The Legislature is very silent on such degrading development and the Executive is willing to pardon rapists, murderers, but not a mother who did the biblical duty of a mom by not sparing the rod and spoiling the child,” said a Bulawayo resident, Physical Moyo.
“The view is that the sentence was too harsh considering the intentions of her actions to correct the children’s behaviour.”
Added Bulawayo Residents Charter chairperson, Thamsanqa Ndlovu: “Community service would have been adequate, or just a warning.”
Felix Pambano challenged the legal framework.
“Who’s going to look after that child as the mother is jailed? I think the magistrate should also make a ruling on who will look after him the child until the mother is out,” he said.
Mpofu, a single parent, who said she did not have any savings for her child’s upkeep, tearfully appealed for the authorities’ intervention.
“As it is, I do not know what my child ate. I haven’t spoken to him. We are given a phone to beep our relatives, of which even if I do that, how will my child call back because he doesn’t have money. If there are well-wishers to look after him until I am free, I would really appreciate them,” she said.
“I didn’t know I was wrong for beating the children, but I did it because they were together doing wrong things. They were even taken by the police for discipline, but she stopped the police from disciplining her child, threatening that they would lose their jobs.”
