The Sunday News
Simba Jemwa, Sunday News Correspondent
AN 18-year teenager from Sakhubula Line in Tsholotsho waylaid a six-year-old girl who was playing with her younger brother before raping her in front of the brother while holding her mouth to suppress her from screaming.
The scary details emerged when Limuka Dube appeared before Bulawayo regional magistrate Mr Joseph Mabeza on Friday to answer to two charges of rape.
He was found guilty on one account and sentenced to six years in prison of which two were suspended for five years.
Dube was employed as a herd boy in the same village.
State prosecutor, Mr Jerry Mutsindikwa told the court that Dube sexually assaulted the six-year old girl sometime in May and on 13 October.
In testimony to the court, the minor girl told the court that on the first day, Dube raped her while she was sleeping in the bedroom after her then pregnant mother had gone to Tsholotsho Centre to seek medical care.
The court heard that on 13 October at around lunchtime, the girl was again accosted by Dube into his bedroom while she was playing with her three-year-old younger brother.
The court heard that Dube then raped the girl in front of the younger brother.
The young girl said she attempted to cry out but her mouth was held shut by Dube and did not report the matter to her parents when she got home.
The matter came to light as they were readying for bed that same night when her brother demonstrated how Dube had raped her.
Their mother noticed the three-year-old’s antics and asked him where he had seen that and he proceeded to reveal that he had seen Dube having sexual intercourse with his sister.
On being questioned by her mother, the six-year-old girl told her about both attacks and the case was reported to Tsholotsho police.
A medical examination was done and revealed that indeed the young girl was sexually assaulted.
The girl’s version of events was corroborated by her brother and the doctor’s report.
In his defence, Dube denied raping the minor proffering conflicting statements of his whereabouts on the day in question.
At one point he suggested during the time in question, he had been sitting around on a scotch cart with his friends but later changed his story and said he had been in hospital while all the time denying that the two children had ever come to his home.
Dube told the court that the charges were trumped up because of bad blood between the girl’s mother and him.
In passing sentence, Mr Mabeza said he was cognisant of the girl’s young age and that he was first offender but said a custodial sentence was suitable.
He said he hoped the young man would reform while in prison and that he would be imprisoned at a facility suitable for offenders his age.
Meanwhile, a man from the Hope Fountain settlement just outside Bulawayo was last Friday remanded in custody until Tuesday facing charges of assaulting his brother-in-law at their place of residence.
Appearing before Bulawayo magistrate, Ms Nomsa Ncube for initial remand, Mmeli Moyo (28) was not asked to plead to charges of physical abuse as defined in Section CS3 (1)(a) ARW Section 4 of the Domestic Violence Act Chapter 5:16 were read out to him.
Ms Ncube remanded Moyo in custody to 2 November after he failed to furnish the court with an alternative address should he be granted bail.
Moyo currently resides at the same address as the complainant.
According to State papers Moyo allegedly pushed his brother-in-law, Mr Meeting Ndlovu to the ground before hitting him with a stone on his back.
According to court papers, the incident happened at B5 Makubile in Hope Fountain.
In another case, 26-year-old Needed Ncube also appeared before magistrate Ms Ncube facing charges of assault as defined in Section 89 (1) (a) of the Criminal Codification and Reform Act Chapter 9:23.
She was not asked to plead and was remanded to 17 November on $3 000 bail and ordered to reside at her given address and not to interfere with witnesses.
According to the State, Ncube stands accused of assaulting Nomsa Moyo with fists in the face before picking up a stone and hitting her several times also in the face.
