The High Court in Kariba has sentenced a woman to 620 hours of community service after she tragically stabbed her envious boyfriend at the Nyami Nyami Festival with a broken beer bottle. The unfortunate incident occurred in front of the police.
Judge Bhachi Mzawazi of the Chinhoyi High Court deferred Sibongile Jeke Siyanjalike’s sentence, which had been set at three years in prison. She was also given a one-year term with good behaviour and 620 hours of community service at Nyamhunga Clinic.
Due to a dearth of State witnesses, Siyanjalike’s murder accusation was dropped in favour of culpable homicide. The dead, Keith Kadziyange, and Siyanjalike had a romantic relationship while working as temporary employees of Lake Harvest Sports Club on October 29,2022 the court revealed.
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Court records state that Kadziyange was very envious of Siyanjalike’s relationships with festivalgoers who were men. Twice over the accusations, he confronted Siyanjalike, violently abusing her at the first meeting.
Siyanjalike went to the police for assistance, but Kadziyange persisted in his attack, hitting her once in the stomach with a baton that he had taken from a policeman. Siyanjalike fatally stabbed Kadziyange in the neck with an empty beer bottle, acting in self-defense.
The court acknowledged that this case involved gender-based violence and highlighted Siyanjalike’s vulnerability as a single mother who relies on her job to support her children. Judge Mzawazi emphasised Siyanjalike’s clean record as well as the deceased’s unwarranted physical abuse of her.
