A 34-year-old man who returned to Zimbabwe after spending years in South Africa has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping his nine-year-old relative in Gweru 15 years ago.
The man, whose name is being withheld to protect the complainant, was convicted on four counts of rape after a full trial at the Gweru Regional Court. He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Gweru Regional Magistrate Christopher Maturure sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment on each count. Two of the sentences will run concurrently, leaving him with an effective 20-year jail term.
The case had remained unresolved for about 15 years after the accused left Zimbabwe for South Africa. His return during a period of xenophobic attacks in South Africa led to his arrest and allowed the long-delayed prosecution to proceed.
The offences took place between June and August 2011 at a house in Gweru. The court heard that the accused was 19 at the time, while the girl was nine. He was a relative of the child and used that family connection to gain access to her.
The child’s grandmother regularly travelled to South Africa on cross-border business. The court heard that the accused took advantage of the occasions when she was away to sexually abuse the girl.
When passing sentence, Mr Maturure pointed to the child’s tender age and vulnerability, the substantial age difference between her and the accused, and the betrayal of family trust. He said those factors justified a lengthy custodial sentence.
The court also heard that the accused fled to South Africa after committing the offences, leaving the matter unresolved while the child grew older. His return years later brought the case back before the courts and ended a period in which the family had been waiting for the matter to be dealt with.
Prosecutor Eggrina Matutu urged the court to impose a lengthy prison sentence. She highlighted the girl’s age, her vulnerability and the breach of trust involved in the abuse of a child by a relative. She also submitted that the child was legally incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse.
“The long custodial sentence should bring an end to a case that had been delayed for about 15 years after the accused fled to South Africa,” said Ms Matutu.
Mr Maturure commended the State’s presentation of the case, singling out Ms Matutu’s detailed work in court. The magistrate found that the evidence presented during the trial had established the accused’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The sentence brings the case to a close after a delay spanning more than half of the girl’s life at the time the accused was finally brought before the court. It also highlights the difficulty investigators and families can face when a suspect leaves the country after a serious offence.
The cross-border nature of the case is not unusual in matters involving Zimbabweans and South Africa. Families, work and business often extend across the two countries, while people accused or convicted of crimes can remain outside the reach of Zimbabwean courts for years before returning.
In a separate case in South Africa, a Zimbabwean man was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of raping his 13-year-old daughter in Limpopo. The man had brought the girl from Zimbabwe to spend the school holidays with him in 2020. After they arrived in Phiphidi village, he repeatedly raped her and threatened to leave her in South Africa if she told anyone.
The child’s unusual behaviour was noticed by a neighbour, who informed the police. The girl was then referred to a Thuthuzela Care Centre, where she received assistance as the investigation continued. The court also ordered that the man’s name be placed on South Africa’s National Sexual Offenders Register.
That case, like the Gweru prosecution, involved a child being abused by an adult who held a position of trust. In the Limpopo matter, the offender was the child’s father. In Gweru, the accused was a relative who was able to reach the girl when her grandmother was away.
Another South African case has also drawn attention to the danger faced by Zimbabwean migrants who depend on others for accommodation and support. In Bloemfontein, a landlord was convicted as an accomplice in the gang rape of a 29-year-old Zimbabwean tenant in 2008. The tenant had lived at the property for several months and knew the landlord before the attack.
The court found that the landlord encouraged two men to rape the woman and left her locked inside the house with them. The men repeatedly assaulted her, threatened her with a knife and burned her with cigarette stubs before she escaped through a window. The landlord’s conviction was upheld on appeal, although her life sentence was later reduced to 12 years because she had not been present when the rape took place and had not personally inflicted the injuries.
The judgment treated the attack as particularly serious because the tenant was targeted because she was from Zimbabwe. It also noted that the landlord had betrayed a relationship of trust with a woman who was living in her home.
The cases in Gweru, Limpopo and Bloemfontein are different in their circumstances, but each involved a victim being exposed to sexual violence by someone who had access to her through a family, domestic or housing relationship. They also show how trust can be abused in places where children or migrants depend on adults for safety.
In the Gweru case, the court’s decision means the accused will now serve an effective 20 years in prison for offences committed when he was still a teenager himself. The sentence reflects the court’s view of the harm caused to a child who was nine years old, the family relationship involved and the long delay caused by his departure to South Africa.
The prosecution’s success also ended a case that had remained open for years. After the accused returned to Zimbabwe, investigators were able to secure his arrest and bring him before the regional court. His conviction followed a full trial, and the complainant’s identity remains protected because she was a child when the offences were committed.
For the family, the sentence closes a painful chapter that began in 2011. For the courts, it underlines the seriousness of sexual offences against children and the heavy consequences of exploiting a family connection to reach a vulnerable victim.