The rape trial of an apostolic sect leader in Chitungwiza started in the Harare Magistrates' Court yesterday, with one of the two complainants breaking down in the witness stand as she told of her alleged ordeal before regional magistrate Betty Makazhe.
Godfrey Nzira of the Johane Masowe weChishanu apostolic sect allegedly raped the two on several occasions at his shrine between February and May this year. In evidence that took up almost the whole court day, the first State witness gave a detailed account of how Nzira allegedly raped her on three occasions and sexually harassed her at other times. She said she was staying and working at the shrine at the time, where Nzira was healing her for an ailment that had partially paralysed her. She alleged Nzira overpowered and raped her three times in his office. She alleged that he threatened her illness would return and she would die if she refused to submit to him.
She said she had not reported to her husband because she was dependent on him and was afraid he would not understand and throw her out. She said: "I was trying to find a way to tell him, and I could not tell anyone else before telling him." She said when she wanted to return home, her husband had told her to remain at the shrine until she had recovered. She alleged that on the first occasion Nzira came to her room on 17 February and ordered her to follow him to his office where he wrestled her to the floor and raped her. She alleged the other times she was raped the events took a similar pattern. The woman said she finally summoned up enough courage to tell her husband after she was allegedly raped for the third time. Her husband, she said, had then called an elder of the church to hear her account.
She said she and her husband had reported the matter to the police when he failed to discuss the issue with Nzira. The woman occasionally broke down in the witness box. The trial was adjourned to 14 August.