A 42-year-old man from Hope Fountain has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted of sexually abusing two boys, aged nine and seven, at a homestead in the area.
Lazarus Siyaninga, who lived at Mr Nkomo’s homestead in Village B1, appeared before Bulawayo Regional Magistrate Patience Madondo on 2 counts of aggravated indecent assault. The court heard that the offences took place on 25 September 2026, after Siyaninga found the children playing and took them to his home.
The magistrate sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment on each count, giving him a total sentence of 30 years.
Siyaninga denied the charges in court and said the accusations had been made to damage his reputation. “Your worship, I never slept with them. This is a fabricated story to tarnish my reputation. I’m a married man, I can’t do such a thing,” he told the court.
The court found him guilty. Prosecutor Arnold Mudekunye had urged the magistrate to impose a prison sentence, saying the boys described continuing effects of the abuse in their victim impact statements.
“Aggravated indecent assault is a serious crime. The victims are young and they will take time to heal. In their victim impact statements they told the court they are failing to sleep well and the ordeal haunts them. The State prays for a custodial sentence so as to send a message to would-be offenders,” Mudekunye said.
The offence was reported 2 days after it occurred. On 27 September, one of the boys told his mother what had happened. That disclosure brought the matter to the attention of the family and led to the case being heard in court.
The account given in court placed the incident at the same homestead where Siyaninga lived. The boys had been playing when he encountered them in the afternoon and took them inside his home. The court heard that he then committed the offences against them.
The sentence was made up of 2 separate 15-year terms, one for each count. The sentence followed the magistrate’s finding of guilt after Siyaninga denied the allegations. His explanation to the court was that he was married and would not have committed the offences. The magistrate nevertheless convicted him on both counts.
The prosecutor’s comments to the court focused on the boys’ accounts of how the incident continued to affect them. Their statements described poor sleep and memories of the ordeal. Mudekunye told the court they were young and would need time to recover, and asked for a custodial sentence.
The Hope Fountain case comes amid other 2026 court cases in which men have received long prison terms for sexual offences against children. In Kwekwe, a 31-year-old barber, Rangarirai Mutangi, was sentenced to an effective 75 years’ imprisonment for 8 counts of rape and aggravated indecent assault involving 5 children aged between nine and 11.
The offences in the Kwekwe case took place between December 2024 and April 2026. The court heard that Mutangi used threats and other means to get access to the children. In one case, prosecutors said he used his position as a modelling trainer to call a 10-year-old boy to his room, where he indecently assaulted him. Another count involved an 11-year-old boy who was woken while sleeping and forced into Mutangi’s room, where he was sodomised repeatedly.
The matter came to light in April 2026, after rumours of abuse circulated in the community and parents and guardians questioned the children. The court imposed 15 years on each count, with some terms running concurrently to produce the effective 75-year sentence.
In June, a 54-year-old man from Mbembesi in Umguza District was sentenced to 30 years in prison for 2 counts of aggravated indecent assault involving two 16-year-old boys. He could not be named because one of the boys was his relative. The court heard that the offences occurred at the man’s homestead in February 2026.
The prosecutor told the court that the man asked his cousin and the cousin’s friend to prepare supper. After they ate, he persuaded them to spend the night at his home. During the night, he ordered them to remove their clothes and assaulted them. The teenagers later reported the abuse to police and were referred to hospital for medical examinations. The magistrate imposed 15 years on each count, with the terms running concurrently.
The three cases involved different accused men, victims and court proceedings. In Hope Fountain, the court heard that the abuse was disclosed by one child to his mother 2 days after the incident. In the Kwekwe and Umguza cases, the court heard accounts involving repeated offences or more than one child. Each case ended with a custodial sentence, though the terms differed according to the counts and sentencing orders made in court.
Siyaninga’s 30-year term followed the conviction on both counts relating to the two boys. The court heard the State’s request for imprisonment and the victims’ descriptions of the effects the abuse had left them with. Madondo imposed 15 years for each count, bringing the sentence to 30 years.