Zimpapers Logo

Thandeka Moyo Court Reporter
A JOHANE Marange Apostolic church elder allegedly raped his nephew’s second wife at a Bulawayo hotel after luring his victim to the venue through a “prophecy” and drugging her, a magistrate heard yesterday,

Regional magistrate Mark Dzira heard this when the trial of Clement Momberume who allegedly raped the woman, a nurse, twice, kicked off yesterday.

Momberume, who is facing a $10,000 adultery lawsuit for the offence filed last year by his nephew, pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape.

The State will seek to prove that he raped the woman in his nephew’s absence after claiming that he had prophecies that he wanted to reveal to her.

As the trial opened yesterday, the woman took to the witness stand and told how Momberume had insisted on going to a hotel so he could prophesy on her.

“I was introduced to him by my husband and he asked for my number. I was surprised when I received a phone call from him in my husband’s absence. He said he wanted to meet me after work. When I knocked off, he picked me up from TM Hyper Supermarket and we proceeded to the hotel,” said the woman.

Once inside Grey’s Inn, she said, Momberume suggested that they buy drinks from the hotel bar as he was prophesying.

“He said I needed cleansing as my husband kept a two-headed snake in Mutare and gave me a drink. I took the drink and started feeling dizzy. That’s when Momberume asked me to follow him. I was not aware of what was happening. The next thing I saw myself in a hotel room and Momberume started undressing. I then lost consciousness.”

She added that she is asthmatic and that Momberume undressed her and raped her on the bed once.

“I regained consciousness later and found myself naked and my body was dripping wet. I dressed up and he took me to a taxi rank and told me to go home. I went home. I intended to tell my husband, but he brushed me off saying his first wife was sick and he wanted to deal with that,” she said.

“Momberume called me days later saying he had confessed to my husband and that we were supposed to meet him at the same hotel to explain. I met up him at the same hotel and he said my husband was on his way. As we waited he offered me a drink and I took it.”

The woman said Momberume placed her on the bed and raped her once and told her to go.

“After fruitless efforts to engage my husband, I finally told him over the phone as he had travelled to see his sick wife. He told me to wait for him to come back to Bulawayo. He came back and we made a police report.”

In his defence, Momberume told magistrate Dzira that the woman was using him to solve her marital problems.

“I’m a public figure and I didn’t rape her. She’s fabricating the information with her husband so as to tarnish my image.”

Magistrate Dzira remanded the matter to June 15.