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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

A 14-year-old girl from Jambezi outside Victoria Falls has dropped out of school after falling pregnant reportedly at the hands of her grandfather and sister’s husband.

The girl who was in Form 1 last year, gave birth in January this year.

Her grandfather aged 75 has since been arrested and charged with two counts of rape and another of attempted rape.

Police arrested the grandfather on October 3 and nothing was done to the complainant’s brother-in-law who is a taxi driver in Victoria Falls.

The grandfather from BH57 in Jabula area under Chief Shana pleaded not guilty to the two counts when he appeared before Hwange regional magistrate Mr Collet Ncube who remanded him out of custody to April 27 for defence case.

Prior to his arrest, the family convened two meetings in August last year when the complainant’s brother-in-law was implicated as being responsible for the pregnancy.

One of the uncles told the meeting that he had caught the two kissing in a car.

The girl denied being pregnant and refused to name the father despite a village health worker having tested her using a pregnancy test kit.

Her grandmother had taken her to the health worker after suspecting that she was pregnant and failing to make her reveal who was responsible.

The brother-in-law denied ever having sex or being in love with the girl and suggested that a paternity test be done after the birth of the baby.

No paternity test has been done so far.

Defence lawyer Mr Thulani Nkala of Dube, Nkala and Company questioned the State why the family’s son-in-law had not been arrested after being implicated.

For the state Mr Vumizulu Mangena said the grandfather allegedly raped his son’s daughter twice in April and attempted to rape her again in August last year.

“A tip-off was received in September last year that a girl aged 14 years was no longer going to school as she was pregnant. Police visited the homestead for investigations and the girl declined to talk about the issue,” said the prosecutor.

The alleged rape was discovered in August last year when the girl reportedly screamed at night claiming there was an intruder in her bedroom.

Her grandparents who were in a separate room, woke up but found no one in the house as doors were also locked, the court was told.

The complainant was examined at Victoria Falls Hospital on 18 September where doctors confirmed she was six months pregnant but still she refused to reveal the person responsible.

Her grandfather left her in the custody of her elder sister and brother-in-law in Victoria Falls.

That is when she implicated him leading to his arrest.

@ncubeleon