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Tendai Rupapa Senior Court Reporter
A POLYGAMOUS Harare pastor suspected to be a serial rapist was yesterday back in court facing fresh allegations of raping three women from his church on different occasions.
This brings to five the number of female congregants that have reported rape cases against Pastor Robert Martin Gumbura who is the founder of RMG End Time Message.

He was recently acquitted on another charge of allegedly offering sex lessons to a married female congregant and vowing to sexually satisfy her.

Gumbura allegedly threatened the victims with death spells.
It is alleged he told them that he would commit them in the hands of the devil and that death would be imminent before giving examples of people from his church who had died due to his death spells.

On the third count, Gumbura is jointly charged with his secretary Tendai Ganyani who allegedly assisted him in raping a girl he had adopted.

Gumbura and Ganyani were not asked to plead when they appeared before Mr Donald Ndirowei who advised them to apply for bail at the High Court before remanding them in custody to December 2.

Gumbura is facing three counts of rape and an additional count of contravening the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act after he was found in possession of pornographic material.

The man of cloth has two pending rape cases before the same courts.
Prosecutor Miss Sharon Mashavira alleges that sometime in January 2005, Gumbura took one of the complainants from her workplace to his house on the pretext he wanted to counsel her for having a relationship with a non-church member.

Gumbura then demanded to be intimate with her and the woman told him that she was having her monthly menstruation.
On a different date, Gumbura allegedly ordered the woman to come to his house before quoting verses from the Bible which he said upheld his moves of wanting to sleep with her.

He allegedly raped her once and ordered her not to tell anyone or else he would curse her with death.
Thereafter Gumbura on several occasions would allegedly engage into sexual intercourse with the woman who complied in fear of death.
It is alleged the woman fell pregnant twice and Gumbura facilitated the termination of the pregnancies.

On the second count, it is alleged Gumbura raped one of his wives’ younger sister.
It is alleged he ordered his sister-in-law to accompany him to a food outlet in Gweru to buy ice cream in the evening.
He allegedly parked his vehicle at Fair Mile Motel and took her to one of the rooms where he raped her.

He justified his actions by telling her that what had happened was a revelation from God before giving her examples of people who died after they were cursed by him.

The State further alleges that Gumbura took advantage of an underprivileged girl whom he had adopted and raped her with the help of Ganyani.

Ganyani ordered the girl to enter into Gumbura’s office and locked the door from outside.
After raping the girl, it is alleged Gumbura phoned Ganyani and ordered her to unlock the door.

All the women later reported the rape cases after seeing that the other women who were raped by him had reported their cases to the police and had not died.

As the police went to arrest Gumbura, they came across two pornographic DVD’s in his brief case and 16 DVD’s in Ganyani’s office.
Mr Emmanuel Samundombe of Antonio and Dzvetero legal practitioners is representing them.