Woman fined for insulting prophet’s manhood

By Sukulwenkosi Dube

PLUMTREE – A 57-YEAR-OLD Mangwe woman was yesterday ordered to pay $300 to a prophet she slandered by mentioning his manhood in public last month.

Shepherd Ncube, 21, had dragged Olitha Phiri to court demanding $700 as compensation for defamation.

Phiri is the wife of Major Moyo, the village head for Manda area where the incident took place.

The court heard that Phiri told Ncube, who is a United Christian Apostolic Church in Zion prophet that his manhood was rotten and useless.

Phiri however countered Ncube’s complaint by demanding $1,000 herself after alleging that Ncube called her a witch.

She alleged that Ncube prophesised to her children that she had killed one of her children and had turned her into a goblin.

Plumtree magistrate, Gideon Ruvetsa however ruled in favour of Ncube and granted him $300 due to overwhelming evidence against the village head’s wife. Phiri’s neighbour’s who testified against her confirmed to have witnessed the altercation in which the defamatory statements were uttered.

“The confrontation between Phiri and Ncube happened in our full view. It appears that Phiri was accusing the prophet of turning her children against her and spreading lies about her.

“They engaged in an argument until Phiri insulted Ncube by mentioning his manhood. It was only after me and other villagers intervened that the argument came to an end,” said one of Phiri’s neighbour’s Cosmas Ncube

Phiri summoned Ncube to her homestead early last month and started accusing him of prophesying and spreading lies about her as well as calling her a witch. Chronicle