shloboe boe
Leonorah Ncube in Victoria Falls
TWO Victoria Falls men, one of them a self-proclaimed prophet, appeared in court for allegedly ganging up and raping several teenage girls under the pretext of cleansing them of evil spirits.
Ronald Ncube (23), a self-proclaimed prophet, and his uncle Fanuel Ncube from Chidobe Village 4 allegedly took unsuspecting teenage girls to their homestead where they would rape them.
Ronald would then threaten to strike the victims with lightning if they revealed the sexual abuse.
Fanuel allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl in 2023 and fled to Zambia where he has been holed up to evade arrest.
He reportedly returned to the country recently to assist Ronald skip the border, but both ran out of luck when police and community members intercepted them.
The duo appeared separately before Victoria Falls magistrate Ms Linda Dzvene facing rape charges.
Ronald is facing four counts of rape while his uncle has one count. They were not asked to plead and were remanded in custody to February 20 pending trial at the Hwange regional court.
The prosecutor, Ms Audrey Mukanganya on April 30 last year, the complainant (17), and her elder visited Ronald’s shrine for spiritual cleansing.
The complainant remained at the shrine as her sister went back home because the cleansing was to take place overnight.
It is alleged that Ronald raped her once and threatened to kill her if she disclosed the ordeal to anyone.
The complainant went home the following morning and did not tell anyone about the rape until May 14 when she narrated her ordeal to her mother.
On the second count, Ronald allegedly raped a 16-year-old girl on January 23 after luring her and her younger sister to his shrine under the guise of cleansing them.
Ronald allegedly threatened to strike them with lightning if they refused to follow him to the shrine.
The court was told that the two girls tried to escape but he chased and caught up with them. He force-marched them back to the shrine where he allegedly raped them.
The court heard that the other rape was committed against a 16-year-old girl on February 1 when Ronald allegedly raped a girl brought to his shrine by her mother.
It is alleged that the girl’s mother took the complainant to Ronald to have her cleansed.
After the exercise, the complainant and her mother left the shrine and Ronald accompanied them to the bus stop.
“The girl’s mother boarded a bus to Victoria Falls leaving the girl in the company of Ronald who allegedly dragged her to the bush and raped her once,” said Ms Mukanganya.
The court heard that Fanuel Ncube allegedly committed the offence on November 25 2023.
It is alleged that Fanuel met the complainant in a secluded place at around 9PM and asked her to choose between having sexual intercourse with him and being assaulted.
The girl chose to be assaulted and he used a switch to indiscriminately assault her. Fanuel went on to drag the girl to his workplace near Sizinda Shops in Victoria Falls where he raped her twice in a toilet.
Fanuel also threatened to kill the girl if she told anyone about the issue. She narrated her ordeal to her cousin.
Online Reporter