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Cynthia Dube, Court Reporter
TWO men from Plumtree who took turns to rape a 15-year-old girl as punishment for double-crossing them, have each been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Ntando Songo (20) and Edmore Tshuma (18) raped the girl on Tuesday last week when they met her in a bush in Madlambuzi, Plumtree, while they were herding cattle.
A court heard Songo and Tshuma accused the girl of double-crossing them before dragging her into a secluded area where they took turns to rape her.
The two who pleaded not guilty were however convicted by Bulawayo regional magistrate Mr Crispen Mberewere.
He sentenced each of the accused to 10 years in prison but suspended four years on each on condition of good behaviour.
In passing sentence, the magistrate said the court took into account that Tshuma and Songo were young first offenders.
“You are 18 and the other accused person is 20 years old. It can happen that when you committed this offence you did not realise you were committing a crime,” he said.
In his defence Tshuma said: “I was in love with this girl and we discovered that she was double-crossing us. I became angry and slapped her once and she apologised. After that, l gave her an option to have sex with us or we assault her for double- crossing us. She then agreed to have sex with us.”
Songo told the magistrate that the girl promised to give him her younger sister after having unprotected sex with her.
Mr Busani Moyo represented the state.
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