adminEdias Ncube (35), of Msilahobe under Chief Sogwala in Lower Gweru, but residingat Solusi University cottages where his wife was a teacher, committed the offence between October 2008 and July 2010.
He appeared before Bulawayo regional magistrate Mr Godwin Sengweni yesterday facing four counts of rape.
Although Ncube pleaded not guilty to all counts, the court found him guilty due to overwhelming evidence and aggravating circumstances that he raped a domestic worker whose trust was in him as a guardian.
The four counts were treated as one for purposes of sentencing and Ncube will serve seven years in prison after the magistrate suspended eight years for five years on condition he does not commit a similar offence within that period.
In his warned and cautioned statement, Ncube said he did not rape the woman but she consented and she would sneak into his bedroom where they would have sex.
The State wanted to prove that Ncube took advantage of the woman who was a shy person and that she did not tell anyone because the matter was sensitive.
The court also proved that he was jealous as he did not want her to talk to anyone including her parents.
The State’s case was that Ncube proposed love to a 21-year-old woman (name withheld) who was working at his house as a domestic worker and when she turned him down, he started threatening her with death and raping her each time his wife was not at home.
For almost three years, the woman was afraid to reveal the matter to anyone because Ncube was threatening to kill her, until at the end of 2010 when she discovered that she was pregnant and fled to her parents.
At some point, Ncube advised her to abort and went on to smuggle her to South Africa with the intention of terminating the pregnancy.
The woman told the court that Ncube bought an unnamed drug, which he told her to insert into her private parts to terminate the pregnancy.
He even accompanied the woman to make a report to the police, but on the way threatened her, saying she should tell the police a stranger raped her.
In October 2008, after she turned his proposal down, Ncube forcibly entered the woman’s bedroom taking advantage of his wife’s absence and raped her once.
She was with two minor children in the room who were asleep.
In April 2009, Ncube started accusing the woman of having a boyfriend and on one of the days when his wife was not around, he raped her once.
In June the same year, he threatened to beat her over an unnamed issue and raped her once.
In July 2010, Ncube’s wife was away at a teachers’ workshop and he raped the woman once again. In each case, he would threaten her with death if she told anyone.
After that incident, he brought a pregnancy test kit and conducted some tests on her, which came out positive.
Ncube then ordered her to abort the pregnancy and that is the time he took her to South Africa without the knowledge of his wife.
Online Reporter