A 22-year-old rape victim in Zimbabwe left many in shock when she asked a Magistrates Court to withdraw two counts of rape against a man who raped her, claiming that she has been bedding him on many occasions following the rape.
Chiocha (38) of Mudzimba Village, Chief Mutekedza, Sadza, was set free after Magistrate Fadzai Mutombeni withdrew the case after the plea.
Zvenyika claimed that after the rape incidences, she had fallen in love with the alleged rapist as they
had enjoyed consensual sexual intercourse on several other occasions and they had asked each other for forgiveness.
It was the State’s case that sometime between February 1 and 29, 2016, Chiocha arrived at Zvenyika’s homestead with his young brothers around 15:00 hrs and proposed love to her but she rejected saying she was married.
Chiocha later returned around 20:00 hrs on the same day and found the complainant asleep with the door not locked as her husband, Billa Luckmore Gijima, had not yet returned from a football match.
He began to pester the complaint again on his love proposal before going to her bed where he allegedly raped her once.
On another day, Chiocha once again approached Zvenyika around 19:00 hrs in her kitchen hut where she was preparing supper while her husband was at a beer drink.
He then grabbed a screaming Zvenyika by the shoulders and pulled her to the back of the kitchen door and raped her.
The complainant waited till early September 2016, when she divulged the rape ordeals to her husband after realising that her husband’s friend, Ozias Dzaramba had not told him as she had asked him to.
ZimNews.net reports that on September, 16 2016, Gijima reported the case at Charter Police Base.
“I am not the one who reported the case to the police. Although I did not consent on the first and second times, we later on indulged in consensual sexual intercourse on several other instances after we asked each other for forgiveness for previous cases. We are now in love and therefore the case can be withdrawn,” Zvenyika told the court.