BINDURA – A 43-year-old man from Mvurwi has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping his daughter.
The National Prosecution Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ), in a post on X, said the attack on the 14-year-old juvenile occurred in July 2021 when the girl left her room around midnight to check the surroundings after she heard someone trying to open the door to her room.
As she made her way back into the room after her investigations yielded nothing, the man grabbed and dragged her into a nearby banana thicket where he raped her while threatening to throw her out of the house if she reported the incident.
The girl fled to her aunt’s home where she told her cousin about the attack, and the two later reported the rape to the police, leading to the man’s arrest.
The man was sentenced to an effective 20 years in prison by the Bindura Magistrates Court.
Elsewhere, a 46-year-old man from Mberengwa was sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping his 14-year-old neighbour, a Grade 7 learner.
The man raped the victim on two separate occasions, threatening her with an axe while she was home alone with her younger siblings, aged 5, 10, and 12.
The man had approached the victim’s home, called out her name, and then proceeded to rape her while threatening her with an axe.
The following day, the man went to the girl’s house armed with an axe. He ordered the girl’s siblings to go into the kitchen hut and the girl to the main house where he raped her for the second time.
The girl reported the rape to her mother when she returned home, and a police report was filed leading to his arrest.
The Zvishavane Magistrate Court sentenced him to 15 years in prison on each of the two accounts. He will serve a total of 30 years in prison effectively.
Separately, in Mberengwa, 19-year-old Layton Gatawa was sentenced to 24 months in prison for attempted murder.
The charges stemmed from a violent altercation at a local nightclub, Jabula Inn, in the early hours of June 26 this year. Gatawa stabbed a security guard during the incident.
As the club was closing, the security guard instructed patrons to leave the premises. However, Gatawa refused to vacate the area, leading to a physical altercation.
During the confrontation, Gatawa allegedly stabbed the security guard in the chest with an okapi knife before fleeing the scene. The security guard reported the incident to the police and received medical treatment at the Mberengwa District Hospital.
Gatawa was later arrested and sentenced to 30 months in prison but six months were conditionally suspended for five years, leaving him to serve an effective sentence of 24 months. New Ziana
