A 25-year-old man from Eluvinjelweni will spend the next decade behind bars after the court found him guilty of severely assaulting his two young children.

 

Bandile Ayanda Ginindza was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment without the option of a fine after appearing before Senior Magistrate Sindisile Zwane. He was convicted on two counts under the Children’s Protection and Welfare Act for assaulting his four-year-old and seven-year-old children.

 

According to reports presented in court, the children had visited their father during the December holidays after he requested to spend time with them, claiming he intended to buy them clothes. The situation turned violent on December 17 when the children allegedly killed one of his chickens after being instructed to keep the poultry outside the house.

 

The court heard that Ginindza became enraged and beat both children with an electric cable. The older child’s eyes were reportedly swollen shut due to the assault, while the younger sustained serious injuries to her neck and arm.

 

Instead of seeking medical attention, Ginindza confined the children indoors and applied red ochre to their wounds. Days later, he took them to his grandmother, telling her he had secured employment near Pigg’s Peak and needed her to care for them.

 

It was the grandmother who noticed the extent of the injuries and questioned the children. According to evidence led in court, the children revealed that they had been beaten and hanged with the cable on roof rafters. The matter was subsequently reported to the police, who transported the children to Pigg’s Peak Government Hospital for medical treatment.

 

The court further heard that prior to the incident, the children had contacted their mother, informing her that they were being assaulted, deprived of food and feared for their lives. Ginindza had allegedly told the mother that he was disciplining them for bedwetting. He later claimed that one child had fallen and was burned by boiling water, explanations which were contradicted by the evidence before court.

 

In mitigation, Ginindza pleaded for leniency, stating that he did not understand what had come over him and that he wished to repair his relationship with his children and their mother.

 

However, Magistrate Zwane ruled that the severity of the assault and the vulnerability of the victims warranted a custodial sentence. The court emphasised that violence against children, particularly by a parent, could not be tolerated in society.

 

The Children’s Protection and Welfare Act criminalises abuse and neglect of minors and provides for stiff penalties in cases where children suffer serious harm.Ginindza will serve his sentence without the option of paying a fine.