Zimbabwean Boy to be Caned for Insulting a Lady on Facebook

A court in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe, has sentenced a 17-year-old boy to be caned two strokes of the cane after he posted a picture of a woman on Facebook with a caption reading, ‘These are Chiredzi’s prostitutes’. The caption was in Shona language.

The boy is reported by The Herald newspaper as having taken the photo with his mobile phone upon which he posted the photo on Facebook with the caption “Mahure emuChiredzi ndiwaya”. The lady discovered the photo and reported the boy to the police. The boy confessed to the magistrate that he pretended that he was making a phone call and then took the photo of the lady and posted it on Facebook.

The court convicted the teenager with “criminal insult”. Caning is a very common sentence in Zimbabwe where in cases where minors too young to serve prison sentences are involved.