A 59-year old school headmistress from Bulawayo who stands accused of peddling her nudes on WhatsApp will today know her fate when she appears before the magistrates court for trial.
The Head, Stella Mhlanga of Kumalo Primary School, who faces charges of contravening Sectrion 26 of the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act Chapter 10:04 (Possesion of prohibited articles), is this Thursday expected to appear before Bulawayo magistrate Marygold Ndlovu for judgment.
Mhlanga, who is out of custody, is said to have accidentally shared pictures of her private parts on WhatsApp, an allegation she, in turn, denies.
Through her lawyer Byron Sengweni of Sengweni Legal Practice, Mhlanga said she is not in possession of the said pornographic material on her phone.
The educationist claims that sometime in December 2019, she received a mobile phone from her South African-based sister, Sibusisiwe Moyo, after having lost her phone from a thieving maid who worked for her.
“Before handing the phone to the accused, the accused’s sister cleared the phone memory and when she received the phone, there was absolutely nothing in it,” Mhlanga’s lawyer was quoted by state-owned weekly tabloid, B-Metro, as saying.
“She will also deny ever posting pornographic material on her WhatsApp. The images were not posted via her phone but via some unknown device. She will further state that upon receiving news trhat offensive material had been posted on her WhatsApp, she was advised that she had been hacked and was also advised to restore her phone to factory settings,” partly reads Mhlanga’s defense outline.
The defense outline also says upon resetting her phone, she lost all the data in her phone, and ‘even before that, she maintains that she did not have any offensive material’ on her mobile phone.
state media
Editorial: Zwnews
