adminPamela Shumba Senior Reporter
A prisoner at Khami Maximum Prison has allegedly been sodomising fellow inmates and threatening to kill them if they reported him to officials. Obert Sibanda, 31, has reportedly been making life miserable for two men who are 23 and 42 with whom he shares a cell at the prison. Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services (ZPCS) spokesperson for Matabeleland region, Senior Prison Officer Bothwell Bosha, said the matter was still under investigation and could not be drawn to give further details. He said buggerism was a criminal offence.
Sources at Khami Maximum Prison told Chronicle that the matter came to light after the 42-year-old was sodomised to an extent that he became weak and failed to undertake his daily duties.
“Sibanda was in the habit of waking up in the middle of the night waking up (his victim) before ordering them to remove their clothes,” said a source at the prison, who requested anonymity.
“He would sodomise them and threaten to increase the activity until they died, if they told anyone. This has been going on for a long time and the two victims suffered in silence.”
The source added that the man eventually got ill due to the abuse and broke the silence.
“He got ill and his health deteriorated, making it difficult for him to walk or perform his duties at the prison. A prison officer asked what was wrong with him and he told him how Sibanda was abusing them on a daily basis.
“He told the prison officer that Sibanda would make use of every opportunity that he had to force them into sodomy, even during the day. He also told the prison officer that he was afraid to report the matter because Sibanda had threatened to have anal sex with him until he died,” he said.
The 23-year-old victim reportedly confirmed the abuse to the prison officers, leading to the isolation of Sibanda who is now facing aggravated indecent assault charges.
He is expected to appear in court soon.
Cases of sodomy are rife in the country’s prisons, with a number of cases allegedly going unreported.
A recent case is that of a prisoner at Khami Remand Prison who appeared in court on Wednesday claiming that more than 30 prison guards were authorised by three senior officers to assault him on Tuesday last week for reporting a case of sodomy.
Richard Fambirai, 33, of Nketa, facing charges of armed robbery and attempted murder, appeared in court alongside co-accused Bruce Ziyambi, 37, of Entumbane and Daniel Nkosi, 22, of Mzilikazi, made the revelations before Bulawayo regional magistrate Mark Dzira.
Fambirai requested to address the magistrate before trial could begin and revealed that he had been severely tortured by warders for reporting the sodomy.
Fambirai, who had facial wounds, said when he reported the sodomy, guards told him never to say such things as they discredited prison authorities.
Dzira ruled that Fambirai was unable to stand trial as he was injured and needed treatment. He ordered the state to investigate the torture and remanded the case to October 8.
Two weeks ago, a convicted murderer Trymore Ndlovu, 30, appeared in court for sodomising a fellow 20-year-old convict at Khami Maximum Prison.
The victim was cleaning his cell when another inmate Emmanuel Morross dragged him to Ndlovu’s cell. Ndlovu threatened to whip him with a piece of wire and ordered him to remove his shorts.
He complied and Ndlovu sodomised him.
The victim told another inmate who later reported what had transpired to the prison officers.
Online Reporter