A Kumakwane woman was last week hauled before a Molepolole Magistrates Court accused of tying her daughter’s hands and legs with a rope and cutting her ear with a shard of glass.
The court heard that the 38-year-old woman who cannot be named to protect the child’s identity, on December, 2022 at Kumakwane’s Botlhapapelo ward, tied her 16-year-old daughter with a church rope and assaulted her with a piece of wood and she sustained some injuries on the head and left ear, a punishment considered unreasonable in degree.
Facing a single count of cruel punishment, the accused woman who is a daughter to a well known business man told the court that she had made peace with her daughter and that the teenager intends to withdraw the case.
“We sat down and discussed the issue and even went to the police. The child wants to withdraw the case,” said the remorseful mother.
Principal Magistrate Solomon Setshedi however dismissed her request noting that it was a serious offence and that her daughter is a minor who cannot decide for herself.
“Why did you tie her with the church rope, were you praying for her?” questioned Magistrate Setshedi as the fully packed court burst in laughter.
To her response before pleading guilty to the charge, the woman said whenever she tried to reprimand the girl but she fought back.
It is alleged that after she tied her daughter’s hands, she continued assaulting her with a stick and wooden plank on the head, leaving her with a wound and another cut on the thumb.
The cruel mother reportedly accused her daughter of stealing her property including a stove, pots and clothes.
Upon questioning the girl who had been away from home for some days, visiting relatives in Molepolole, the girl denied any knowledge of the theft and that was when the mother brutally punished her.
The girl is said to have then reported the matter to the police the same day and her mother was arrested but was later released as investigations continued.
The woman and her daughter were both taken before social workers for counselling.
Since the accused pleaded guilty to the charge, the court set May 2nd, 2023 for facts presentation.
