A WOMAN smothered her sister’s two-month-old baby to spite her following a row.
Luzile Ncube, 27, snuffed the life out of the tot to punish her elder sister, Agnes, who had ignored her orders to go to a neighbour’s house and ask for food.
On Wednesday, Ncube, of Bambanani Village in Mphoengs, Mangwe, was committed to a mental health institution after a judge acquitted her of murder by reason of insanity.
The Bulawayo High Court heard that Ncube, her sister Agnes and the latter’s daughter were at home on September 27, 2008, when a row broke out between the two women.
The dispute arose after Agnes her younger sister’s urging to go to a neighbour’s house and ask for some food, said Simbarashe Makoni, prosecuting.
As the row escalated, Makoni told the court, Luzile physically attacked her sister forcing her to flee the home, leaving behind her child sleeping in one of the huts.
She returned to the homestead after hearing her baby scream.
“When she got to the doorway, she saw Luzile suffocating the baby with her hands,” Makoni said.
It was too late to save her and she died almost instantly.
But far from raising the alarm, the court heard, the baby’s mother went to sleep.
At about 8AM the next the morning, the two women’s mother noticed Luzile attempting to give the lifeless tot to Agnes, who refused to accept it. She called the police.
Justice Lawrence Kamocha heard from Ncube’s state-appointed lawyer Solomon Mguni that she was born with a mental disorder and was “intellectually challenged”.
Dr Elena Poskotchinova, a psychiatrist who assessed Luzile, told the court that she thought of herself as a “prophet”.
She appeared to be psychotic, she said, which manifestsed itself in the form of “delusions of persecution, reference and grandiose”.
She told Poskotchinova that she believed her mother and sister were “witches” who made her mentally ill and wanted to kill her.
Justice Kamocha ordered that she be detained at Mlondolozi Health Institution indefinitely to receive treatment.