Man falsely accused of rape by cheating girlfriend

A 19-year-old woman from Madlambuzi in Bulilima district in Matabeleland South province fabricated a rape case against her boyfriend because of a relationship with another man. She started seeing her boyfriend named Jephias Ncube (19), from the same area in January last year until early this year.

The two met in Botswana where they were both working and they then lived together. However, they were both deported on separate occasions and they continued with the relationship until early this year when the woman started seeing another man.

They started fighting over the issue until she told Ncube she was no longer interested in the relationship and he assaulted her on several occasions. Each time he assaulted her, they would have gone to his place of residence where they would after that have sex and because she wanted to dump him and remain with her new lover, she reportedly arranged with her elder sister to report to the police that he was raping her.

The woman had fabricated that Ncube would tie her up, assault her and go on to rape her.
Ncube was on Wednesday arraigned before Bulawayo regional magistrate Mrs Fadzai Mthombeni facing three counts of rape and assault.
He was, however, found not guilty of rape and acquitted although he was convicted of assault as the court ruled that the woman had lied about the rape to fix Ncube.

The magistrate sentenced Ncube to a wholly suspended 12 months in prison for assault after he admitted to the charges.
The court felt that the woman's evidence in court was not sustainable as she said she had been raped twice while Ncube said they had sex on several occasions.
She did not dispute claims by Ncube that on the days she said he raped her twice he had actually had sex with her more than three times.

The woman's elder sister told the court that the woman had told her he was failing to sustain the relationship financially and also abusing her.
Ncube told the court that when he was arrested in March, he was summoned to the police for assault and was only told about the rape when he got to Madlambuzi Police Post.
The State's case as presented by Mr Mazhar Petkar was that on the first count Ncube and the woman met at a soccer tournament on Christmas Day while in Madlambuzi after they returned from Botswana.

As she was avoiding him and spending time with another man, Ncube grabbed her by the hand and detained her for some time when others left for their homes.
The two later went to Ncube's homestead where they spent the night together having sex.
She left for her home in the morning and did not tell anyone about the rape.

On 3 March this year Ncube who was infuriated by the woman's relationship with an unnamed man, armed himself with an axe and went to her place of residence where he met her accompanying the said man.
He forcibly separated the two and force-marched the woman to his homestead where they spent another night together.

The court heard that Ncube assaulted the woman with a cane all over the body the following day when he went to visit her and she refused to accompany him to his home. On another day he found her in a garden with the man and assaulted her.

They had sex for the whole night again until she left for her home the next morning when she told her sister Ncube had raped her. Her elder sister informed their parents and later accompanied her to Madlambuzi Police Base to make a report, leading to Ncube's arrest.