News / Local
Rapist begs to be castrated to avoid a 20 year jail term
01 Feb 2014 at 05:02hrs | Views
A RAPIST was beginning a 20-year jail term yesterday after a magistrate turned down his plea to be castrated instead.
Xolisani Nkala, 29, told Bulawayo magistrate Mark Dzira that he was worried for his children.
And, in an unusual request, he begged the magistrate: "If the option of a fine or community service is not possible, can you recommend that I be castrated so that I don't go to jail but to my children?
"I'm married with three children. I'm a family man. I grew up without knowing my father and I wouldn't want my children to grow up without a father too."
But Dzira told Nkala there was no provision for castration in the country's statutes. He also said that a fine and community service would not be proper for a case of rape where Nkala's moral blameworthiness was high.
He was jailed for 20 years for rape and one year for robbery.
Three years were conditionally suspended.
Prosecuting, Tinashe Dzipe proved that on August 12, 2013, Nkala approached the 20-year-old victim and her sister in North End and told them that he had been sent by a businesswoman in Ntabazinduna who wanted somebody to work in her shop.
Nkala and the two women boarded a lift and alighted at the Nhlambabaloyi turn off along the Bulawayo-Harare Road. They walked along a small path into the villages.
When they reached a stream, Nkala ordered the victim to remain behind and he went ahead with her sister – claiming she would be interviewed first.
Nkala returned after 30 minutes and raped the victim after pricking her with a needle on the thigh to subdue her.
He stole her Nokia cellphone before she escaped to the nearby home of village head, Kenneth Khumalo, of Mbembesi, who called the police.
Nkala, who denied the charges, claimed he picked the two women from a city night club and asked for sex from one of them who charged him $5 for the service.
The victim told the court that she begged Nkala not to rape her, fearing she would lose her marriage if her husband heard about the rape.
Nkala was arrested when the victim, who was walking with her husband in Bulawayo, saw him walking the streets in a chance encounter.
Xolisani Nkala, 29, told Bulawayo magistrate Mark Dzira that he was worried for his children.
And, in an unusual request, he begged the magistrate: "If the option of a fine or community service is not possible, can you recommend that I be castrated so that I don't go to jail but to my children?
"I'm married with three children. I'm a family man. I grew up without knowing my father and I wouldn't want my children to grow up without a father too."
But Dzira told Nkala there was no provision for castration in the country's statutes. He also said that a fine and community service would not be proper for a case of rape where Nkala's moral blameworthiness was high.
He was jailed for 20 years for rape and one year for robbery.
Three years were conditionally suspended.
Prosecuting, Tinashe Dzipe proved that on August 12, 2013, Nkala approached the 20-year-old victim and her sister in North End and told them that he had been sent by a businesswoman in Ntabazinduna who wanted somebody to work in her shop.
Nkala and the two women boarded a lift and alighted at the Nhlambabaloyi turn off along the Bulawayo-Harare Road. They walked along a small path into the villages.
When they reached a stream, Nkala ordered the victim to remain behind and he went ahead with her sister – claiming she would be interviewed first.
Nkala returned after 30 minutes and raped the victim after pricking her with a needle on the thigh to subdue her.
He stole her Nokia cellphone before she escaped to the nearby home of village head, Kenneth Khumalo, of Mbembesi, who called the police.
Nkala, who denied the charges, claimed he picked the two women from a city night club and asked for sex from one of them who charged him $5 for the service.
The victim told the court that she begged Nkala not to rape her, fearing she would lose her marriage if her husband heard about the rape.
Nkala was arrested when the victim, who was walking with her husband in Bulawayo, saw him walking the streets in a chance encounter.
Source - chronicle
