20 Mangochi residents pay fines for failure to wear face masks in public
At least 20 people have paid a K9 000 fine each for failure to put on face masks in public in Mangochi.
The senior resident magistrate’s court in Mangochi on Monday ordered two convicts to pay K9 000 fine, and 18 others to pay K5 000 fine for failing to wear face mask contravening Section 20(3) of Public Health Act (Corona virus and Covid-19 prevention rules and regulations of 2020).
According to Mangochi Police Publicist Rodrick Maida, the 20 were arrested on Monday during the Police Covid-19 rule enforcement exercise.
Appearing before court, all the 39 suspects pleaded guilty to the charges levelled against them prompting the court to fine them as a punishment.
Convicts asked court for forgiveness as they cannot afford to pay fine whilst the State prayed for stiffer sentence to deter others.
Passing the sentence Senior Resident Magistrate Joshua Nkhono concurred with the prosecution, saying despite government’s efforts to protect its citizens from the pandemic, some have chosen to deliberately not to comply.
He therefore handed down the fine sentences or one month imprisonment in default.
Out of 20 convicts 14 are men whilst six are women.
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Inu mijomba covid-19 sitengera kuti uli ndiyodula kapena ayi. Please maskup and prevent the spread of codid-19
Reckless and selfish behaviour of some individuals who think they can not contract the virus…very sad indeed. The battle is still raging and we should not down the vanguard lest we all perish
kudelera ndikumene kwakula
You are right my dear. Just imagine, yesterday, a female vendor was busy advertising the masks and pushed me to buy one. I asked her why she was insisting that i buy one. She said that it would protect me from covid-19. I asked her why she was not wearing one while her colleague was hanging the mask around her chin as if it was a chin strap. Worse still, some men and women were loitering the city with only their mouths covered while their stinking noses were wide open pipping (monga zimakoswe). Zoona aMalawi kumakhala ndi makani. Palibe munthu… Read more »