Rape bishop’s bail bid thrown out

By Mashudu Netsianda

The High Court has dismissed an application for bail pending appeal by a self-proclaimed bishop from Bulawayo who is serving a 20 year jail term for raping and impregnating a 17-year-old congregant.

Andrew Mnkandla (42) and his brother Lovemore (34), a pastor at the same church, raped the teen on different occasions.

Lovemore is still at large.

The two ‘men of God’ held the victim hostage at Mnkandla’s house while they raped her.

The ruling by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi follows an application for bail pending appeal by Mnkandla through his lawyer, Mr Liberty Mcijo.

Justice Mathonsi dismissed the application, saying it held no prospects of success on appeal.

“I am satisfied that the applicant enjoys no prospects of success on appeal. Regarding sentence, whichever way one looks at the matter, his moral blameworthiness having taken undue advantage of the trust bestowed to him by the complainant and his family to take turns with his brother to abuse the girl until she fell pregnant, and is unable to tell who is responsible for the pregnancy, is sky high. He will therefore serve a lengthy term of imprisonment and he might as well get on with it now.

“In the result, the application for bail pending appeal is hereby dismissed,” ruled the judge.

Justice Mathonsi said the complainant’s belief left her vulnerable and exposed to the predatory instincts of the applicant.

“The applicant was able to instil fear in the complainant and therefore prevent her from reporting or exposing the attack to anyone until it could no longer be concealed. These courts have in the past accepted that indoctrination and indeed religious dogma have the effect of paralysing believers into submission making them helpless in the face of sexual abuse,” he said.

Mnkandla argued that the State failed to prove that there was any force used against the complainant. He further argued that the trial court dwelt too much on spiritual beliefs.

“The appeal has prospects of success because the report of the rape was made very late and the State did not show that there was any force against the complainant,” he said.

Mr Thompson Hove, representing the State, opposed the application, saying there were no prospects of success against conviction.

Regional magistrate Mr Crispen Mberewere convicted Mnkandla and sentenced him to 20 years in jail.

He suspended four years on condition of good behaviour, leaving him with an effective 16 years to serve.

The court heard that sometime in March 2016, Mnkandla and Lovemore raped the teen on different occasions.

The duo threatened that if she told anyone, the “demons they had exorcised from her would return with scores of others to haunt her.”

Lovemore raped the victim at Khami Mountains and Mnkandla raped her at his house.

The court heard that the victim’s mother came to look for her at Mnkandla’s house while she was in his bedroom but he denied knowledge of the girl’s whereabouts.

The following day the complainant’s father came and Mnkandla told the girl to escape through the back door and wait for him at a football pitch close by.

When her father came to get her later, Mnkandla instructed the girl to tell him that she had spent the night at a school gate.

In his defence, Mnkandla accused the victim’s father of fabricating the rape allegations.

The court heard that Mnkandla went to the teen’s mother with his wife and tried to bribe her so that she convinces her daughter to change her statement in court. The Chronicle