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Court Reporter
A 37-year-old man reportedly raped and impregnated his cousin at knife-point in South Africa after she had turned down his love proposal.
The man (name withheld) allegedly committed the heinous act after his 20-year-old cousin had visited her father in South Africa.
The accused stayed in the same neighbourhood.
The complainant’s father and the accused’s father are brothers.
The victim could not report the alleged rape to South African police as she feared deportation.
Her papers were not in order.
The accused denied the charges when his trial opened before a Harare magistrate.
He cited family disputes as the cause of the allegations against him.
The complainant maintained that her cousin raped her and was the father of her three-month-old baby.
Prosecuting, Mr George Manokore alleged that sometime in January last year, the complainant went to South Africa in search of a job and stayed with her father.
In February of the same month, the accused allegedly proposed love to his cousin.
The cousin refused.
It is alleged she told her cousin that it was a taboo for them to be in a love relationship.
The suspect pretended to have respected the cousin’s sentiments.
Three months later, he asked the cousin to sleep at his house after lying he was going on a business trip.
The complainant agreed to look after his house while he was away.
The suspect returned home during the night and started making sexual advances to his cousin, the court heard.
He told the cousin he loved her deeply and wanted to be intimate with her.
He produced a knife and threatened to stab her after she refused to be intimate with him.
The cousin then raped the victim.
She went back to her father’s house the following morning but did not tell him what had transpired.
She later decided to return to Zimbabwe and discovered she was pregnant.
The court heard that she was afraid to tell her mother about the sexual abuse.
Her mother later discovered that she was pregnant and sent her back to South Africa where she opened up to her father.
She came back to Zimbabwe in January this year and reported the matter to the police.
Online Reporter