A man described as
‘mentally challenged’ was jailed for ten months in Swaziland for stealing
alcohol from a bottle store after it had closed for the night.
Ntokozo ‘Early Bird’
Ndzimandze, aged 34, appeared before National Court President Chief Ndlondlo Tsabedze
charged with theft.
The Swazi Observer newspaper reporting from Siteki on Monday (10
September 2018) said, ‘When the charge sheet was read to him, he pleaded guilty
with a big nod and a notable smile on his face.’
It reported Ndzimandze had
broken into the store and was found ‘drowning himself in booze’. He said he had
accidently been locked in by a bar worker.
The Observer said during cross examination Ndzimandze ‘sent the gallery
into stitches when he made reference to a mouse which could be mistakenly left
inside a storeroom full of maize.
‘“How would you expect a mouse to behave if
you mistakenly left it inside a maize storeroom?” he asked, as he appeared to
be expecting a response.’
He was sentenced to 10
months in jail with the option to pay a fine of E1,000. In Swaziland seven in
ten people live on incomes less than E30 a day.
The Observer reported he was taken to Big Bend correctional facility as
he failed to pay the fine.
The newspaper reported,
‘The judgement has been criticised by some law practitioners who pointed out
that the accused was known to be mentally challenged as he normally roams
around the town centre, scavenging for food. When he appeared before court,
none of his relatives were present to state his condition.’
It is not unusual in
Swaziland (recently
renamed Eswatini by absolute monarch King Mswati III) for people to be sent to jail because they cannot
afford the fine option.
In August 2014 it was
reported that
more than 1,000 people were in jail in Swaziland because they
were too poor to pay fines. That was nearly three in ten of the entire prison
population.
In Swaziland offenders are
often given the option of jail time or paying a fine. Correctional Services
Commissioner Isaiah Ntshangase said at the time there were people in jail
because they could not pay fines for a range of matters, including traffic
offences, theft by false pretences, malicious injury to property and fraud.
Figures revealed that 1,053
of 3,615 inmates in Swazi jails were there because they did not have the money
to pay the fine option - 29.1 percent of the entire prison population.
Ntshangase said the numbers
in prison because they could not pay fines was growing.
See also
Man too poor to pay fine sent to jail
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