Wedza man jailed 10 years for killing teen daughter; judge says he will forever be tormented by the incident

By Mary Taruvinga

A Wedza man who killed his daughter after assaulting her for two consecutive days on allegations that she was being promiscuous has been jailed for 10 years.

Nomore Makwinja (52) who made headlines last year following the incident was sentenced by High Court judge, Justice Esther Muremba after a full trial during which he denied allegations insisting that he only disciplined his child Diana.

He will however serve five years effective after half of his sentence was set aside conditionally.

Diana was 16 when she tragically lost her life and was about to sit for her Ordinary Level exams.

Her father was jointly charged with her aunt and namesake, Diana Makwinja (63) who was however cleared of wrongdoing.

Diana Jnr was staying with Diana Snr in Budiriro after her parents divorced.

During the trial, Makwinja said that a person cannot die as a result of being assaulted on the buttocks.

To him, buttocks were the least dangerous body parts that could result in a person dying after being assaulted.

Makwinja said as a layman he had no appreciation that the tissue beneath the skin surface could be severely damaged resulting in bleeding and in an infection that would cause general sepsis which would in turn cause failure of vital body organs such as the liver, lungs, kidneys and the heart.

Caroline Mutimusakwa, for the State had submitted that Makwinja must be convicted of murder because he perpetrated a persistent, protracted and vicious assault on Diana and did not take her to hospital.

The court heard Diana was only taken to the hospital by police officers who received an anonymous call from concerned neighbours.

Judges concurred but convicted Makwinja of culpable homicide.

“In view of the foregoing, we find both accused persons not guilty and acquitted of murder. Accused one (Makwinja) is found guilty of culpable homicide as defined in s 47 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act,” ruled the judge.

During the trial, Makwinja showed that he was handling the whole situation badly as he was crying throughout the defence case.

“We had to hear his evidence as he was sobbing. He could not be consoled. It was clear that he did not mean for the deceased to die.

“This was even evidenced by the fact that for the 21 days that the deceased was admitted to the hospital, he went to visit her every day.

“He was also buying all the medication that the doctors were prescribing to the deceased. The accused person will forever be a tormented man,” said Muremba.

The judge however said culpable homicide is a serious offence.

She said whilst it was necessary to discipline her, it was however not necessary to be violent with her.

“Discipline should be instilled within limits and it also needs to be tempered with mercy.

“A parent should have a heart and feel for his or her child. In this case the accused was heartless as he assaulted the deceased for hours on end on the 8th and on the 10th of July 2022.

“He went to the extent of assaulting her using an iron bar on her buttocks which were barely covered with a skin tight. He had ordered her to lie down and had made her lower her pair of trousers to knee level.

“So, the accused was basically looking at her bare buttocks as he was assaulting her.

“This was a very shameful thing to do as a parent,” she said.

She added, “The deceased was still a minor. She still had her whole life ahead of her.

“The accused needed to understand that as a child she could go wayward and that what she needed was a guiding parent.

“From the evidence that was led, it does not look like the accused ever gave her a chance to explain her side of the story.

“He never sat down with her in order to ascertain from her what was happening, “ the judge noted.

The court was also told that Diana only had one boyfriend and concluded one cannot be said to be promiscuous under such circumstances.

When a postmortem was carried out on her body, it was discovered that she had developed an abscess in the buttocks where her father was assaulting her with an iron bar.

The abscess caused an infection that affected the vital organs such as the liver, kidneys, lungs and heart.

Despite being operated on, she failed to recover. After two weeks she passed on.

The court said this was beyond chastising a child.

“Parents should be able to draw the line between the two. A child is not chastised using an iron bar and for days and hours on end. It is better for parents to resort to other ways of disciplining children that are non-violent in nature,” she recommended.