Image: B-Metro
A couple chained up, tortured their maid (19) and poured boiling water into her genitals for allegedly stealing US$200.
Thembelani Moyo (28) and Sibongile Mpofu (28) who stay at Vukuzenzele village in Filabusi and work at Senga Hill Mill Mine, breathed fire when they arrived home unexpectedly on New Year’s Eve and discovered that US$200 which they had kept in their wardrobe was missing.
They quizzed their house maid who cannot be named for ethical reasons, but she vehemently denied ever seeing the money. Her denials sparked fury in the couple.
They set upon her with everything they could lay their hands on. Moyo went caveman and grabbed a log to bash the hapless teenager while his wife, unleashed Kungfu kicks and punches. Realising that she was staring death in the face, the battered maid croaked out a confession.
She told her employers that she had squandered US$169 and was left with US$31 which she surrendered to the uncompromising pair.
A neighbour, Simangaliso Moyo, escalated the violence when she arrived with a sjambok and mercilessly whipped the chained teen.
The torture reached a crescendo when Mpofu allegedly boiled water which she poured onto the half-dead maid’s private parts. She allegedly told the victim that it would stop her from having sex with any man.
The maid sustained horrific injuries. After the vicious attack the couple rubbed salt into the wound by reporting the teenager to the police, for theft leading to her arrest.
However the maid’s appearance before Filabusi magistrate Abednico Ndebele, where she pleaded guilty to theft, opened a can of worms for the couple.
The maid stunned the gallery with a tear-jerking exposé of her ordeal. Moyo admitted that they had chained her to stop her from running away.
The magistrate ordered that the teenager must be examined by a State doctor and remanded her out of custody.
While she was out of custody she reported the couple and Simangaliso, for assaulting her and scalding her on her private parts with hot water to the police.
A medical report detailing the extent of the injuries on the maid’s privates was availed in her second court appearance.
Magistrate Ndebele sentenced the teen to six months in prison, suspended four months for three years on condition that she does not commit an offence involving dishonesty and suspended the rest on condition that she restitutes US$169.
The couple and their neighbour were arrested for assault and appeared before Filabusi magistrate Sukoluhle Belinda Nunu last Wednesday.
Magistrate Nunu remanded them out of custody on $40 000 bail each, to 3 February for trial.
They are self-actors. -B Metro
