Gumbura bail bid thrown out

By Tendai Kamhungira

HARARE – Rapist Robert Martin Gumbura, the incarcerated Independent End Time Message founder, has lost his Supreme Court bid to be freed on bail pending appeal.

Gumbura is currently serving an effective 40 years in prison, after Harare regional magistrate Hosea Mujaya found him guilty in February on four counts of rape and another count of contravening the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act.

Following the conviction, Gumbura filed an appeal against the conviction and sentence. The appeal is still pending.

Pending the determination of his main appeal, Gumbura applied for bail at the High Court, a request which was dismissed, prompting his Supreme Court petition.

Supreme Court judge Bharat Patel yesterday said there was nothing wrong with the High Court ruling.

Patel said he was convinced that the complainants in Gumbura’s case unwittingly succumbed to his sexual advances and depredations.

“Thereafter, constrained by fear and misconception, they remained taciturn for several years and only reported their respective ordeals after appreciating the full nature of their sexual bondage,” Patel ruled.

“I am satisfied that the appellant has no prospects of success on appeal and that his appeal is doomed to fail.”

In the application, Gumbura’s lawyer Thembinkosi Magwaliba had told the court that his client would not abscond if granted bail because of his huge family. He offered his house as security for bail.

However, prosecutor Editor Mavuto said Gumbura might be induced to abscond because of the sentence that was imposed on him and that he still had another pending rape case.

“What is more significant in casu is that the appellant has not proffered any positive grounds for allowing him to proceed on bail,” Mavuto said.

But Patel noted that the existence of a huge familial entourage, comprising 11 wives and 32 children, was a condition of Gumbura’s own making and does not really advance his claim to bail.

Patel said Gumbura’s circumstances provided good grounds for him to abscond if released on bail.

“For all of the foregoing reasons, the appeal must fail and it is accordingly dismissed,” he said. Daily News