CCC MP acquitted of rape charges

Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) MP Happymore Chidziva was on Tuesday acquitted on rape charges.

Chidziva was arrested last September accused of raping a 16-year-old girl, a relative of his wife.

Harare magistrate Letwin Rwodzi said the National Prosecuting Authority had failed to prove the Glen View South MP's guilt.

The magistrate also said the prosecution failed to prove that Chidziva ever assisted the minor to look for a job as she alleged.

The NPA was alleging that sometime in April 2024, Chidziva called the complainant and asked her to meet at Zanu PF Headquarters traffic lights where he picked her up.

The girl allegedly told Chidziva that she wanted to go home since she had been waiting for him for about five hours.

It was alleged that Chidziva told her that his car had broken down and he asked her to escort him to Jameson Hotel where he intended to meet someone.

The state said Chidziva went to the toilet and asked the girl to follow him.

He allegedly asked her for sex and the girl refused, stating that she was not ready on that particular day but some other time.

It was alleged that the two went to Chidziva's room at the hotel where he raped her before offering her US$25.

The prosecution said after the alleged rape, the MP hired a taxi before he disembarked at a service station along Willowvale Road while the complainant proceeded to Glen View.

"The following morning the accused person sent a message instructing her to buy some morning after pills with the money he gave her and her cousin was holding her phone and she saw the message," the MP's trial was told.

"The complainant then told her cousin that she slept with the accused person and he was telling her to buy morning after pills."

It was alleged that sometime in July 2024, the complainant told her aunt that Chidziva had found a job for her in Marimba as a house helper.

On that same day, it was alleged that Chidziva took the girl to a guesthouse in Waterfalls where he again raped her once and the girl spent two more nights at the guest house.

After the two nights, the court heard, the teen did not return home but went to stay in Ushewekunze with her friend and her parents.

It was further alleged that on August 9, 2024, around 5PM, the MP called the teenager whilst she was in town and asked her to meet him at Cresta Lodge in Masasa.

The NPA charged: "The complainant then hired a taxi to Cresta Lodge where she met the accused person. They then went into a room and the accused person then went out and returned at around midnight.

"The accused person asked her to have sexual intercourse with him and she refused and told him that she was tired."

Prosecutors alleged Chidziva pleaded with the teen promising her a job outside Zimbabwe and she yielded to his sexual demands.

The 16-year-old then returned to Ushewekunze where she was chased away by her friend's mother because she had not slept home the previous night.

The court heard that she then went and stayed with her cousin in Budiriro 1, but her aunt had already filed a missing person's report at Budiriro Police Station.

She later presented herself to the police where she narrated her ordeal leading to Chidziva's arrest.