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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
A BINGA man has been jailed for 30 years for raping his 14-year-old daughter on three different occasions after an inyanga told him that would bring him riches.

The shameful man, who cannot be named to protect the complainant, initially claimed that the girl seduced him before alleging that an inyanga had advised him to commit the crime so he could prosper in life.

The 45-year-old man from Siampongo area under Chief Sinamagonde, Lusulu in Binga pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape when he appeared before Hwange regional magistrate Mr Collet Ncube on Tuesday.

The first rape took place sometime in December last year while the two were working in the fields at around 3AM. The man also raped his daughter in January and July this year.

The man told the court that his daughter consented.

“I am aware that the complainant is my daughter and she is 14 years old. We were working in the field at night and the complainant’s actions indicated that she wanted sex as she placed her legs on me when I sat under a tree. I responded and had sex with her and she didn’t resist.

“She also consented when we went to the garden at night and also on the third occasion at home. She had carried her siblings to bed and after some time when I went out to relieve myself, she got into my blankets and we had sex. I don’t know what befell me but I was informed by a traditional healer to sleep with my daughter for me to be rich or prosper in life,” said the father of four.

The man and his four children shared a bedroom hut which was divided by a curtain, the court was told.

His wife was not around when he raped his daughter.

The complainant told the court that her father would threaten to assault her or tell her that she would be mauled by hyenas if she resisted.

“As we were working in the fields, he said he wanted to sleep with me. He spread a cloth on the ground and told me to lie on it. I refused but he threatened to assault me and said I would be mauled by hyenas before he raped me twice,” said the girl.

She told the court that in another incident on July 1, her father was wielding a whip and ordered her to join him in bed.

He then raped her as her siblings were sleeping on the other end of the room behind a curtain.

The court heard that sometimes the girl would flee from home and seek refuge at neighbours’ homes or sleep outside to avoid being raped by her father. A neighbour Ms Elizabeth Muzamba told the court how the girl once sought refuge at her home.

The magistrate said the man’s moral blameworthiness was high as he breached the trust bestowed on him as a father. He said the man did not only deflower his daughter but exposed her to sexually transmitted diseases.

“What makes matters worse and unthinkable is that the complainant is your biological daughter. Your wife left her and other children in your custody out of trust as their father but you breached that. You repeatedly sexually abused the complainant and threatened her not to report,” said the magistrate.

“Child rape is a serious form of personal violation and is disturbingly widespread, where children have become a target of men who can’t control their sexual desires hence there is a need for courts to respond by giving longer custodial sentences.”

The magistrate slapped him with 10 years for each count.

Of the total 30 years, three years were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour.

Prosecuting, Mr Tinomupei Mbiza said the rape came to light when neighbours who suspected that the girl was being abused confronted her until she opened up. She was referred to St Luke’s Hospital in Lupane where she was examined and a report was made to police leading to her father’s arrest.

@ncubeleon