Baby Mother fined E5000 for insulting baby daddy
A mother of a four-month-old baby found herself in front of the magistrate today for insulting her baby daddy on March 9, 2024.
Zinhle Dube was charged under the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act, 2018, which is commonly called SODV.
This is a law passed by the Parliament of the Kingdom of Eswatini. This law started operating in August 2018. The purpose of the law is to address matters related to Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence in Eswatini. Dube was charged for using words that hurt the father of his child, Insulting, mocking, or calling the other person names. Repeated threats cause the other person emotional pain and therefore is a crime according to SODV act.
When narrating her side of the story, Dube said she found herself insulting the father of her four-month-old child because he owed her E10 000, and he had not paid a single cent for the child they had together.
“Malungelo Mamba owes me E10 00 which I gave to him at different intervals, at first, I gave him E3000 then later E7000 he then went to South Africa in Johannesburg where he blew up the money. He does not even take care of our child,” said Dube to the court.
This angered the Principal Magistrate Fikile Nhlabatsi who before fining the lady she gave her a word of advice and said she should not give men money.
“My love you do not give money to a man, no matter how in love you are do not because he gets comfortable, and this happens. You are feeding his child and now him, yet he goes spend your money with other women. Do not give this man money and I want him to appear before this court,” said Nhlabatsi.
She further advised Dube to file a case with the small claims court to get the money back and then proceed to end her relationship with the father of his child.
Dube was fined E5000 or 2 years imprisonment and E3000 was suspended by the magistrate on condition that she does not appear in court for the same offence.
Another SODV case was that of Thabiso Hlandze who hit his girlfriend of seven years on the head and face with a knob Kierra. Hlandze said he was angered by that his girlfriend Londiwe Msibi went gallivanting and drinking spree while their child was left alone.
“I was drunk when this happened your worship, but the reason is that I was heart broken having to not know where my child was or with,” said Hlandze.
He mitigated and said he was a first-time offender, and he was fined E5000 or 2 years in prison. Nhlabatsi warned the young man to stay away from alcohol together with his girlfriend.
“Stop drinking, this will destroy your home, family and future because look at the things you do once drunk. You will one day hit a person while intoxicated and they die that is life in jail,” said the Magistrate Nhlabatsi.