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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
A 22-year-old man from Jambezi in Hwange district has been jailed for raping his 82-year-old grandmother and promising to give her a packet of sugar to buy her silence.

The rape occurred at the elderly woman’s homestead.

Liveson Muleya arrived home on Friday, December 18, from a beer drink and staggered into his granny’s bedroom hut where he raped her once.

Muleya pleaded guilty to a count of rape but blamed his actions on drunkenness saying he was too intoxicated to know what he was doing.

“I was too drunk after having one too many of opaque beer and a six pack of Chibuku. I got lost as I thought I was getting into my room. I apologise for what I did,” he pleaded.

Hwange regional magistrate Dambudzo Malunga found him guilty of the crime.

She sentenced Muleya to 15 years in jail but suspended three years for five years on condition he does not commit a similar offence within that period.

Prosecuting, Bheki Tshabalala said Muleya forcibly entered his granny’s bedroom hut at 3AM.

“The accused proceeded to his grandmother’s bedroom hut where he forcibly opened the door to gain entry. The noise awakened the old woman who asked him what he was doing in her room,” said the prosecutor.

The court was told that Muleya, who lived at the same homestead with his grandmother, suddenly pulled her skirt up and legs apart before raping her.

“He told her not to tell anyone about the issue and promised to give her a packet of sugar and vegetables if she kept the rape secret,” said Tshabalala.

Soon after the rape, Muleya left his granny’s bedroom hut and proceeded back to his own hut and slept as if nothing had happened.

His grandmother braved the night and walked to her brother’s homestead in the same village and narrated her ordeal. The brother reported the matter to a neighbourhood watch committee member Thando Weza who arrested Muleya in the morning before handing him over to the police.

The elderly woman was referred to Victoria Falls District Hospital for a medical examination.