The ManicaPost
Ray Bande Senior Reporter
FIVE more minors – aged between five and seven – have opened up on sexual abuse experiences they encountered at the hands of a 61-year-old Chipinge man who was recently arrested after a five-year old boy reported the alleged abuse to his parents.
However, the wheels of justice are moving at a slow pace because the children’s parents and guardians are reluctant to take the matter to the police.
Simon Madhoyo was arrested last week on allegations of sodomising a five-year old neighbour’s son. He appeared at the Chipinge courts and was remanded in custody to today (Friday).
Madhoyo, who runs a small grocery shop in Mwacheta, was charged with aggravated indecent assault.
As word spread that more children could have been abused by the suspect, the Manica Post tracked down five minors in Bare Village to uncover the crimes allegedly perpetrated against them.
The case was the talk of the community and villagers aired their views.
Mr Albert Madhoyo, a community development committee chairperson who is a cousin to the alleged perpetrator, said the other children started opening up about their sexual abuse experiences after one of the victims had reported the matter to his parents.
He said two of the five minors who were allegedly abused by 61-year old Madhoyo were his own grandsons.
“The way I see it is that the parents and guardians of these other five minors are so poor that they can hardly afford the bus fares to travel to the nearest police station.
“There is also an element of fear. We have a police base nearby, but the officers at the base normally request the complainant to find transport to ferry officers to and from the base or bring the accused.
“Most of the villagers here cannot afford that.
“The other factor is that even if they report at the nearest base, most of them do not have funds to meet travelling costs to witness the whole process until the finalisation of the trial.
“This is painful. I deal with ECD pupils and vividly recall that on the day the other minor was abused he did not attend school. These children have been traumatised.
“Some are being ridiculed during playtime. In fact, that is how the other five ended opening up after being ridiculed that they had also been sodomised.
“I think if this matter is to be thoroughly investigated the number of abused children might be more than six,” he said.
A six –year-old boy who also opened up to the abuse said: “I went to fetch water at a nearby borehole. He called and asked me to get inside his house. He removed my pants and sodomised me. It was painful.
“He gave me peanuts and told me never to tell anyone. He said he would beat me up if I ever told anyone”.
A parent of one of the abused boys said her child disclosed the abuse following the police report.
“I heard that my child was one of those that were abused. It surfaced as children were ridiculing each other about being sodomised.
“We then sat down with him and talked to him nicely. That is when he divulged everything, giving the graphic detail of how it happened,” she said.
Another parent said she returned from South Africa after having been told about her son’s abuse.
“I returned from South Africa after learning that my son had been abused. It happened while I was away and I reported the case to the police a fortnight ago.
“We were told to come and sleep at the police base so that we would go to Chipinge the next morning.
“This did not materialise because there were some inexplicable excuses that were made at the police that I did not understand at all.
“I had to use my own money to go to Chipinge where some tests were done at hospital and conclude that they found nothing wrong,” she said.
