The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
A Rusape-based traditional healer who raped and impregnated two sisters before forcing them to terminate the pregnancies has been jailed 36 years.
Simbarashe Mutsetse (26) of Muranda Village under Chief Makoni was convicted by Rusape regional magistrate, Mr Francis Mapfumo, on two counts of rape.
He was sentenced to 18 years on each case.
Mutsetse denied the charges, arguing that he was in love with the two sisters.
He said he was in a relationship with the younger victim but she cheated on him, thereby forcing him to dump her for her older sister.
He also argued that the sisters’ mother (who could not be named) was aware of the development and addresses him as son-in-law.
Mutsetse said the charges stemmed from jealous and are meant to fix him.
However, the State, led by Rusape District Prosecutor, Ms Event Dhliwayo, proved its case beyond any reasonable doubt, thereby earning the rapist a lengthy custodial sentence.
The offences were committed between February 2020 and August 2022, and the matter was initially heard before Chief Makoni early this year.
Chief Makoni slapped Mutsetse with a fine of six cattle and six goats for impregnating the sisters and forcing them to abort the pregnancies.
The community court then reported the matter to the police, leading to Mutsetse’s arrest.
Mutsetse was denied bail and has been in remand prison since February.
Ms Dhliwayo said Mutsetse, a traditional healer, relocated from his rural home to Vengere, Rusape, where he became the victims’ mother’s tenant.
On an unknown date in February 2020, Mutsetse told the girls’ mother that her older daughter needed spiritual cleansing.
This was to be performed at Rusape Dam. He said the cleansing rituals would be conducted by him and the victim alone.
The mother was advised to remain behind praying and never suspected anything since they had previously gone to the shrine without any incident.
Ms Dhliwayo said while the pair was at the dam shrine, the traditional healer’s purported spirit medium ordered the victim to sit down as the cleansing was to be performed through sexual intercourse.
The victim refused and only gave in to the rapist’s demands after being threatened with death.
He covered her head with a traditional cloth (retso) before pushing her on the ground and raped her twice.
They then returned home.
He continued sexually abusing the girl in her bedroom until May 2021.
Ms Dhliwayo said on an unknown date in December 2021, Mutsetse told the victims’ mother that her minor daughter needed cleansing which was also supposed to be performed by the two of them at his shrine near Rusape Dam.
The mother was also instructed to remain behind praying.
When the traditional healer got to the shrine with the minor girl, he told her that the cleansing would be done through sexual intercourse, but she refused.
Mutsetse went on to deflower the girl. He raped the minor twice before returning home.
He continued to abuse her in her bedroom until August 2022.
The heinous crime came to light in August 2022 after the victim realised that Mutsetse was using the same method to abuse her minor sister and spilled the beans to her mother.
Mutsetse was confronted by the victims’ neighbours and vanished from the house.
Testifying in court, the victims’ mother accused Mutsetse of impregnating her two daughters and forcing them to abort the pregnancies on the pretext of performing cleansing rituals.
She said her daughters suffered in silence after Mutsetse threatened them with death.
The woman said the abuse was also orchestrated under her roof and strongly believes that Mutsetse used juju on her since she did not suspect anything.
“My heart is bleeding because it all happened under my watch. I could not pick it, maybe he was using juju on me. This is the worst thing ever done to me,” she said, adding that he should rot in jail for ruining her daughters’ lives.
She further argued that Mutsetse betrayed the trust she bestowed on him as she treated him like her own son.
“I will never forget and forgive him for that. He should rot in jail for destroying my family,” she said.
One of the State witnesses said the minor victim confided in her about the incidents while at school and advised her to divulge it to her mother.
She added that on one occasion while at school, the victim’s school uniform was spoilt with some smelly fluids.
When she asked the victim about it, she divulged that she had been forced to abort her pregnancy by Mutsetse.
