Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Reporter
A 17-YEAR-OLD Form Four candidate from Mutare is displaying extraordinary courage by sitting for her Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) Ordinary Level examinations with both hands heavily bandaged after suffering severe knife wounds while fighting off a naked intruder who had sexually assaulted her elder sister and attempted to rape her.
For most teenagers, examination stress is challenge enough.
But for the Sakubva girl, whose identity is being withheld because of the sensitive nature of the matter, every word she writes in the examination room comes with searing pain.
Her palms and fingers are stitched after she desperately grabbed the blade of a knife wielded by an attacker during a terrifying ordeal that unfolded at their family home in the OTS section of Sakubva during the early hours of last Saturday.
The horrifying attack came just two days before her final O-Level examinations began.
Yet despite the physical pain and emotional trauma, she has refused to give up on her dreams.
“It is painful to write with sliced fingers and hands. I have stitches all over my hands and experience excruciating pain when writing, but there is no other option, but to write,” she said shortly after completing one of her examination papers on Tuesday.
She said examination authorities had granted her an additional 15 minutes to complete her papers because of her injuries.
As she narrated the ordeal, tears welled in her eyes.
She said she had fallen asleep on a sofa while studying when she was jolted awake at around 2am and found a naked man wearing a black mask standing beside her 24-year-old sister.
“My sister, who was under duress, said: ‘Please do not scream.’ At first, I thought they were lovers, but the man ordered me to sit down and not go back to sleep,” she recalled.
Confused and frightened, she soon realised something was terribly wrong when she noticed a huge knife in the man’s hand.
The intruder threatened to kill them if they screamed and allegedly forced the teenager to watch as he sexually assaulted her elder sister.
Terrified, she began to pray silently.
“I covered my face with a cloth and continued praying,” she said.
The attacker, however, warned her to stop because he regarded her prayers as noise.
Moments later, after attacking her sister, the intruder turned his attention to the teenager.
He ordered her to remove her clothes.
Her elder sister desperately pleaded with him to spare the girl, reminding him that she was due to begin her O-Level examinations on Monday.
But the man allegedly responded angrily, insisting no one would tell him what to do.
As he moved closer, the teenager made a split-second decision that may have saved her life.
Noticing that he was holding the knife in his right hand, she grabbed the blade with her bare hands.
A violent struggle ensued.
The sharp metal sliced deep into her palms and fingers, but she refused to let go.
“I believe it was the Holy Spirit that took control of my hands because I had been praying. We struggled for the knife and I pushed him until he hit the stove. He stormed out naked,” she said.
The sisters quickly locked the door, but the intruder reportedly tried to force his way back inside.
Their fear then shifted to their younger brother, a Form One learner, who was sleeping in another room.
Fearing that the attacker could target him next, they rushed to get him to safety before screaming for help.
Neighbours responded, while police reportedly arrived around 4am.
The teenager described the suspect as tall and light-skinned.
The sisters, who lost both parents, have been raising themselves under extremely difficult circumstances. The elder sister survives through vegetable vending, using the modest proceeds to care for the family and support her younger siblings’ education.
The teenager said the intruder repeatedly demanded US$6 000, claiming he had been told that the family was involved in the second-hand clothing business and kept large sums of money at home.
“He said he had been told that we were in the second-hand clothes business,” she said.
In a separate interview, the elder sister, said she woke up to find the intruder already inside her room.
“He whispered that I should not shout because he had already searched the house and discovered that only children were inside and could not overpower him,” she said.
The woman said she only had US$30 from her vending business, money the intruder took before abandoning it during the struggle.
She suspects the attacker may have been monitoring the family before striking.
The man allegedly gained entry by breaking a wooden window and unlocking it from inside.
“There was no padlock inside, which made me wonder whether he already knew us or had been watching us for some time,” she said.
The family’s Samsung and Huawei mobile phones also disappeared during the attack.
Although still traumatised by her own ordeal, the elder sister said watching her younger sibling write examinations in agony is almost unbearable.
“She is in so much pain, and I wish that pain had been inflicted on me instead, especially at a time when she is writing such important examinations,” she said, her voice breaking.
Beyond the physical injuries, the family now lives under a cloud of fear.
They worry that the suspect, who remains at large, could return.
“We are living in fear because we suspect that he might pounce again. We have heard rumours that he is going around raping and robbing women,” said the elder sister.
Relatives have since moved into the house to provide support and protection.
The girls’ aunt, Mrs Charity Bingepinge, travelled from Harare after learning about the ordeal.
“It is very painful. There are female tenants staying in the cottage, and they told us that someone knocked on their door around midnight. It could have been the same man,” she said.
The incident has heightened anxiety among residents of Sakubva, many of whom fear the attacker could be linked to other reported attacks on women in Mutare.
A resident, Mrs Gladys Muneta, said the community is increasingly worried as the suspect remains at large.
“We do not know what is being done to bring him to book. The police should protect these girls and other women from further attacks,” she said.
Acting Manicaland provincial police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Wiseman Chinyoka, referred questions to national police spokesperson, Commissioner Paul Nyathi, who was not readily available
Girl fights off rapist, writes exams with bloodied hands
