A WOMAN who abandoned her disabled baby boy in a jackal-infested bush for fear of rejection by her family has been jailed for eight years.
Buphilo Mlauzi, 26, was driven away from her matrimonial home in Matoko village, Mberengwa, by her husband in September 2007. She fled to Gwanda to be with her sister, taking with her the tragic boy, 2, and his four-year-old sister.
But arriving in Sunukani Village in the Halusupi area of Gwanda, she found that her baby boy – who was crippled – was unwelcome by her sister who thought he was a curse, the Bulawayo High Court heard.
Driven to despair, said Whisper Mabaudi, prosecuting, Mlauzi took her baby to a bushy area where she dumped him, alive. The area is infested with jackals and wild dogs, the court heard.
Mlauzi led detectives investigating the child’s disappearance to a bushy area in Halusupi where six small fragments of a skull were recovered. The body parts were proved to be the remains of the boy.
On Tuesday, Mlauzi pleaded guilty to culpable homicide before Justice Nicholas Ndou.
The judge credited her for three years spent in remand prison, meaning she will serve an effective five years in jail.