Son throttles, kicks, punchs mother (80)

(STUDENT JOURNALIST)

Mbabane - An 80 year-old woman of Mpolonjeni cursed the day she gave birth after her youngest son throttled, kicked and punched her for belatedly paying her dowry to her family and selling his plot.

The woman, Alice Lukhele, opened an assault case against her last-born son, Mfanukhona Lukhele, for an offence committed on February 22 at Mpolonjeni. The matter then appeared before the Swazi National Court this past Monday.

The source of trouble was the 80-year-old mother of eight taking Lukhele’s cattle to her parental home at Nsenga and then proceeding to sell a piece of land belonging to Mfanukhona on which he was building her a spacious three-bedroom house.

This did not go down well with Mfanukhona, apart from the other family members, who approached his mother and enquired about the cattle and his piece of land, at which she grew hysterical.

This is said to have provoked Mfanukhona’s to such an extent that he throttled, repeatedly threw her against a wall, kicked, and punched her several times on the head.

When asked by the court as to why he would go to such lengths assaulting an elderly woman who was his mother, Mfanukhona stated that he was troubled by his mother’s actions which he himself was a victim of.

He, however, exuded remorse for his actions and stated that "It was not my intention to assault my mother, whom I respect and cherish so much.

"However, her behaviour has been absurd as she was selling everything that belonged to our family and proceeded to allow her family to help themselves to the few cattle that were left after the demise of our father.

"I only did it out of a sore heart as all I was trying to do seemed not to please her and the mere fact that I had wasted a lot of resources acquiring the land and building her a three-bedroom house only for her to unjustifiably sell a portion of the land," he told the court.

Mfanukhona also alleges that his mother was heedless as she would not consult any of the Lukhele family members when taking decisions.

"She would be so obstinate that she would not want anyone to interfere, let alone challenge her actions, on the grounds that she was the anchor of the family and she was deciding on what was left for her by her late husband," Mfanukhona told the court.

Swazi National Court President Ngeto Cindzi warned the old woman to desist from doing things on her own without consulting all the relevant members of the family. He further warned her to avoid mixing things up just because she was old and was about to die as that created problems and even split families. He went on to warn Mfanukhona about assaulting elderly people, let alone his mother who brought him into this world.

Mfanukhona was found guilty of an offence of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment with a the option of a fine of E180. He paid the fine.

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