The Sunday News
Amanda Ncube, Sunday News Reporter
FATHER from hell. That is the only apt phrase to describe an HIV positive man from Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North who shocked the courts when he confessed that he raped and impregnated his 20-year-old daughter thinking that she was not going to contract the virus.
The 43-year-old man from Butabubili Village confessed this when he appeared before Bulawayo regional magistrate Mr Trynos Utahwashe last week facing rape charges. The magistrate sentenced the man to 20 years in jail and after hearing him confess about his HIV status and his reason for raping his daughter. He described him as satanic, adding that he was not going to suspend any years as the man did not deserve lenience. The man had first pleaded not guilty and later during his defence pleaded guilty.
“What you did is an abhorrence in law even in terms of convictions whether religious convictions in life or our moral standards in life, what you did was despicable so you deserve a sentence that cannot trigger despondence by the members of the public. If I remit some years even the public will say I was lenient with you yet you don’t deserve one. You deserve a sentence that should make the public have faith in courts because I am sentencing you to 20 years in jail with no suspensions,” he said.
Mr Utahwashe said it was not only the laws of the nation or land that condemns sexual intercourse between a father and his child, even the theological scriptures forbid it.
“People should shrug off this notion of believing that if you sleep with your own biological daughter if you have HIV, it will go away. It’s high time that notion should leave people,” he added.
Prosecuting, Mr Tinashe Dzipe said sometime in December 2015 at around 7pm the daughter was cooking with her younger sister when the father came to her and requested to visit her at the bedroom secretly but she refused.
“At around 8pm the daughter and her younger sister went to bed. While they were sleeping, the father came into their room and requested to have sexual intercourse with the daughter but she refused again,” said Mr Dzipe.
The court heard that he forcibly had sexual intercourse with his daughter without her consent and out of fear the daughter did not tell anyone. The matter came to light when the daughter’s grandfather discovered that she was pregnant and the complainant revealed that her father had raped her. The woman then reported the matter to the police leading to her father’s arrest. The girl was taken to Tsholotsho District Hospital for medical examination. In his defence the man said he was HIV positive and he did not think that he was going to infect her.
