Prophet jailed 20 years for rape

a sElF-PROClaiMEd prophet from Jotsholo in Matabeleland north province has been slapped with an effective 20-year jail term for raping a 10-year-old girl who was taken to him for prayers by her mother.

Emmanuel Ncube (34) on Monday pleaded guilty to the rape charge when he appeared before Hwange regional magistrate Collet Ncube.

The magistrate convicted him on his own plea and sentenced him to 20 years in jail.

Prosecutor Vumizulu Mangena told the court that on October 9, 2020 at 3pm, the girl's mother took her and her two siblings to Ncube's homestead for prayers.

Ncube prayed for them and when they were about to leave, he asked their mother to leave the 10-year-old girl behind.

it is the state's case that the mother agreed and left the child behind and at 8pm, the girl went to sleep with other children at Ncube's place.

Ncube called the child to his bedroom hut on the pretext that he wanted to pray for her.

He raped her and threatened to unleash evil spirits on her if she told anyone about the incident.

The next day, the girl told her mother about the incident and a report was made to the police, leading to Ncube's arrest.