A police officer has been sentenced to an effective 22 years in prison after being convicted of raping one of his daughters twice and indecently assaulting her sister on three occasions.
The man’s identity has been withheld to protect the children. He was convicted by Mbare regional magistrate Fadzai Mthombeni on two counts of rape and three counts of indecent assault. Prosecutor Vimbai Makamure led the State’s case.
He received a combined 20 years for the rape offences and two years for the three indecent assault charges, leaving him with an effective sentence of 22 years behind bars.
The court heard that the offences took place at different times this year, when the children were left in their father’s care while their mother was at work. The prosecution said he used those periods when he was alone with the children to attack them and then threatened them to prevent them from speaking out.
On the first rape count, the father attacked his daughter at the family home after her mother had left for work and her siblings had gone out. After the rape, he threatened to beat her if she told anyone what had happened.
The same child was raped again on 9 August. She had fallen asleep while watching television and later woke to find her father raping her. The court heard that he again threatened her after the attack, warning her against disclosing the abuse.
Her sister was subjected to three separate indecent assaults. In one incident, the father took the child to a canteen where he was working and attacked her while they were alone. When she protested and threatened to tell her mother, he allegedly responded by threatening to beat her.
The second assault took place at home after the other children had gone to fetch water. The third happened on 29 July, when the girl stayed behind to care for a younger sibling who was unwell while her mother was at work.
The sentence came as another child-sex-abuse case in Chitungwiza moved into the spotlight, after police arrested a 28-year-old man accused of abusing two nieces and his younger brother over a period of three years, about a decade ago.
The suspect was arrested just after midnight on 10 September during a police operation at his father’s home. He cannot be named because doing so could identify the alleged victims.
Police allege that the man raped two cousins, who were seven and eight years old at the time, and sexually abused their younger brother, who was about six. The alleged abuse took place at the family home in Chitungwiza.
The case only came to wider attention after the older girl, now 18 and living in the United Kingdom, suffered a breakdown and told her mother what had happened. Her cousin, who remains in Zimbabwe, later supported the account and described how the children had tried to raise the alarm when they were young.
“We told our aunt at the time our uncle was hurting us and she said she would inform our grandmother. She never did. We had lost hope that we would ever get assistance,” the girl said.
She said the uncle would take the children into his bedroom and abuse them while the others watched. She described the attacks as painful and said the children screamed, but he did not stop.
“He would take the three of us to his bedroom and abuse us. It was horrible. He hurt us badly. It was very painful. We would scream, but he would not stop,” she said.
The family’s attempts to obtain help from relatives in Zimbabwe did not result in the suspect’s immediate arrest. Relatives in the United Kingdom then sought assistance through a social media group for Zimbabwean women living in the diaspora. They were connected to Bulawayo businesswoman Sipho Mazibuko, who runs Mental Voices Trust and organises the Miss Rural Pageant.
Mazibuko reported the case at Chitungwiza Police Station under RRB Number 6964087. She contacted the girl who remained in Zimbabwe, and the child corroborated the account given by her cousin.
The suspect could not initially be found. Mazibuko and the police then arranged a trap after discovering that he sold liquefied petroleum gas. They contacted him while posing as bulk buyers and arranged a meeting, but he failed to appear while officers waited nearby. Mazibuko said the team suspected that a relative had warned him.
Further inquiries led investigators to his father’s house. When police arrived, the suspect refused to open the door. Officers were preparing to force their way inside when he eventually opened it and was arrested.
The girl said the suspect appeared to show no remorse during the arrest.
“He was laughing. He kept asking me if I was sure about what we were doing. This man stole my childhood. I hope he rots in jail,” she said.
Mazibuko said she travelled to Chitungwiza with Miss Rural Lupane organiser Christine Malalazi to help bring the suspect before the authorities. She said the suspect’s father co-operated with the police and told them to take his son if he had committed the alleged offences.
Mazibuko also said she wanted to use her resources to protect victims and establish safe shelters where survivors could receive support and rebuild their lives after court proceedings.
Malalazi said the arrest was important for the protection of children and women. She said the team had been ready to assist police when the suspect initially refused to open the door.
The Chitungwiza arrest followed a series of serious rape convictions in Zimbabwe in recent weeks. In one case, a 33-year-old man from Mubaira in Mhondoro was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of raping a 78-year-old woman at her home on 26 August. The court heard that he forced his way into her room, attacked her and fled after she screamed for help.
In a separate case, a 57-year-old man from Honde Valley received an effective 30-year sentence for the attempted rape and rape of an 11-year-old girl. The court heard that he approached the child while she was playing, tried to force himself on her and later returned to her home on two occasions to rape her. The abuse came to light after the girl told her grandmother, who reported the matter to police.
Childline Zimbabwe operates a free, nationwide, 24-hour helpline for children and young people facing abuse, neglect or exploitation. The service can be reached by dialling 116 from any telephone network. Childline also provides confidential counselling and support through its drop-in centres, as well as WhatsApp contacts for people seeking help.
The cases have placed renewed attention on the danger children can face in places where they should be protected, including family homes and situations where they are left in the care of adults they know. In the Mbare case, the court heard how threats were used to keep the children silent. In Chitungwiza, the allegations only came to light years later after one of the victims spoke to her mother from abroad.
For the police officer, the Mbare court’s sentence now brings the criminal proceedings to an end with 22 years in prison imposed for offences against his own children. In Chitungwiza, the arrested suspect remains at the centre of a police investigation into allegations involving three children from the same family.
The identities of all the children involved remain protected.
If a child is in immediate danger in Zimbabwe, Childline can be contacted free of charge on 116.