A couple has appeared in court in South Africa for sjambokking their 12-year-old daughter to death over rumors that she was seen kissing a boy.
According to SowetanLive, Nthatisi Bembe was subjected to nearly 30 minutes of brutal sjambokking by her biological mother and her live-in boyfriend at their home in Lehae, south of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
Just a few minutes after the assault, Nthatisi was found dead on the bathroom floor where she had gone to wash off the blood that had covered her body.
Yesterday, her mother Miriam Bembe, 35, and her boyfriend Raymond Sekgapane, 42, made their first appearance at Lenasia regional court on a charge of murder.
Giving a summary of what led to the Grade 7 pupil’s death, prosecutor Tumelo Maunye said the girl’s beating was allegedly triggered by someone who told her parents that she had been seen kissing a boy.
“The parents got angry and called her to come home. For about 30 minutes, they beat her with a sjambok. She then went to the bathroom and moments later, they found her lying there, dead. It’s a complicated matter that can be solved by a postmortem,” Maunye told the court.
Magistrate Maggie van der Merwe agreed with the prosecutor, before postponing the matter to next week for a bail hearing.
“The postmortem will tell us if this was murder or a heart attack. This case is not about what we see with our eyes, it’s very complicated. She was allegedly beaten for kissing a boy and and now she is dead. The postmortem and other evidence will guide the police and the prosecutor on how we proceed. Unfortunately, I cannot make a decision right now,” said Van der Merwe.
A neighbour who lives across the road from Nthatisi’s home said on the evening of the incident, nobody heard any ruckus coming from the house.
“We just saw forensic vehicles coming to take evidence from the house in the morning. The father was taken in for questioning. I’ve known the couple for some time and they even have a younger child together.
“They seemed like good people. I think [they beat up Nthatisi out of] sheer anger and disappointment at hearing that their child was seen with a boy,” said the neighbor to SowetanLive repoters.
In South Africa, beating your child is banned.
The Constitutional Court made a ground-breaking ruling that upheld a high court judgment that effectively does away with the common-law defence of reasonable chastisement when spanking a child in September last year.
In essence, this ruling abolished any forms of spanking of children and imposed harsh penalties.
The ruling was met by mixed reactions, with some welcoming it, saying it is the step in the right direction to break the cycle of violence. Others felt the banning would tear families apart.
