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Walter Nyamukondiwa Chinhoyi Bureau
A 22-YEAR-OLD man from Banket, who lived in a bush where he terrorised women through chilling acts of rape and kidnappings, has been slapped with an effective 59-year prison term.
Kudakwashe Shambare of Kingstons Farm in Banket, appeared before Chinhoyi Regional Magistrate Mr Never Katiyo facing three counts of rape and another of kidnapping and assault.

The three counts of rape attracted 20-year jail terms each, but five years were suspended on condition he does not commit a similar offence when he is released in 2073.

On the count of assault, Shambare was sentenced to five years of which a year was suspended.
In all these cases Shambare was armed with a 38-centimetre double-edged knife that he used to threaten women into submitting to his sexual demands.

The assault and kidnapping charges arose when he went to a homestead at Kingstons Farm on December 8 last year at around 9am.
He assaulted a woman there before drawing his knife and force-marching her to a nearby hill, saying he wanted to kill her.

Shambare, who is a fishmonger, spent the night with the woman and raped her.
On the other count, he went to the home of a 17-year-old girl and told her parents that he wanted to marry her, but they turned him down.

Shambare produced a knife and threatened to kill the girl’s brother before force-marching her to a nearby field where he raped her and spent the night with her.
At dawn, he went further into the bush with the girl fearing that he would be spotted.

The girl later took advantage of people who passed by in search of firewood and escaped.
In another case, an 18-year-old girl was coming from Sanganai Creek in Banket in a bushy area when Shambare suddenly jumped from a tree and landed in front of her while holding his knife.

He led her further into the bush and raped her.
Shambare also met another woman in the bush and threatened her with his knife before showing her a blood stained T-shirt saying he was now a “rebel” who had killed two people by hanging them on a tree.

He tied a wire around the woman’s neck and ordered her to remove her clothes before raping her.
After the rape, Shambare took the woman to a place he called his “base” that had blankets, but she later escaped by plunging into a crocodile-infested dam where some fishermen rescued her.

Meanwhile, a Hurungwe farmer was recently sentenced to 35 years for raping his 11-year-old daughter twice, claiming he got herbs from his grandmother which required him to commit the offence to enhance yields in his field.

The 49-year-old man was sentenced by Mr Katiyo after pleading guilty to two counts of rape.
When asked by Mr Katiyo why he raped his daughter, he said he wanted to increase his farm yields.

Mr Katiyo castigated traditional healers and prophets who prescribed remedies that led to the abuse of children and women and said they should be brought to book.
In mitigation, the man said he regretted what happened, to which Mr Katiyo said with hard work he could have easily achieved the four tonnes of yields that he realised using the so-called juju.

The man will serve an effective 35 years after being sentenced to 20 years each for the two counts of rape before five years were suspended on condition that he did not commit a similar offence.