By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
A HOUSE wife of Lusaka’s Makeni Villa in Lusaka who was arrested after a video in which she was assaulting her husband’s alleged lover has been convicted and fined K5,000 failure to which she will serve a jail term of three months.
Lusaka magistrate Ireen Wishimanga sentenced Mwayana Nyirongo, 30, after she pleaded guilty to assaulting Edith Sankeni.
The sentence comes into effect from June 27, 2017.
Nyirongo’s co-accused, a 17-year-old grade nine pupil was, however, ordered to undergo counseling with Advocacy for Child Justice to help her rehabilitate.
The duo was facing a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm for beating up Edith Sankeni.
Passing judgment yesterday, Ms Wishimanga said the actions of Nyirongo were that of a savage as it was unreasonable for her to act in such a manner.
Ms Wishimanga said the fact that Nyirongo beat up a stranger who was a guest in her house showed that she did not welcome visitors.
She said she was slapping Nyirongo with a custodial sentence in order to deter would-be offenders.
With regard to the pupil, Ms Wishimanga said had it not been for her education, she would equally have punished her.
“‘You are lucky because you are a pupil who is sitting for mock examinations. Had it not been for that I would have punished you so that you learn a lesson,” Ms Wishimanga said.
Ms Wishimanga warned the pupil against taking the law into her own hands as consequences would be grave next time.
In mitigation, Nyirongo, a mother of three, asked for forgiveness, saying there was  no one to take care of her family, while the pupil said she was supposed to write her mock examinations.
A probation officer from the Social Welfare, Brenda Mafuta, pleaded with the court not to impose a custodial sentence on the juvenile as she was a first offender and a pupil.
Ms Mafuta recommended for the pupil to undergo counseling and that she had learnt a lesson after spending many weeks in remand.
She also told the court that the environment where the juvenile hailed from had a significant contribution to delinquent behaviour in children were beating other women suspected of adultery was considered as a norm.
Sankeni met her fate after she went to collect her memory card from Mwayana’s husband Tyson Zulu at his place.
She had given her phone to Zulu for repair but he failed to do so.
The prosecutor said the convict found Ms Sankeni in her house in the sitting room and told her husband he had caught her red-handed after which she started calling the woman a prostitute.
A mob of women joined in attacking Ms Sankeni after Mwayana dragged her out of the house.