A Bindura man has been arrested for allegedly raping his wife’s four minor relatives on differrent occasions, the Zimbabwe Republic Police has confirmed.
The minors are aged between 10 and 14.
“The ZRP confirms the arrest of a Bindura man (64) for rape cases involving four minors aged 14, 10, 11 and 10. The suspect raped the victims who are related to his wife on different occasions,” police said in a tweet Wednesday morning.
The police did not provide further details to the case.
This follows the recent rape and alleged murder case of a 14-year-old minor who died while giving birth at a Marange shrine.
The suspect is yet to be arrested, a move that has angered many who accuse the government of protecting the apostolic sect as it is considered an important constituency during elections.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition challenged the government to swiftly act on the case.
ZRP said the police is being barred from accessing the shrine which is believed to be the place where the now-deceased Memory Machaya was buried without the knowledge of her relatives and without police notification
“Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is astonished by claims by the Minister of Justice, Ziyambi Ziyambi that the Zimbabwe Republic Police ‘is facing resistance’ in investigating the case of a 14 year old girl, Memory Machaya who died while giving birth at an Apostolic Church shrine in Marange early this month August 2021,” reads the statement.
The statement further reads, “It is shocking that law enforcement agents mandated to maintain law and order as well as protection of fundamental rights, including those of the girl child, would claim to face resistance in a case of such magnitude; a case that has attracted worldwide condemnation when the perpetrators are well-known individuals”.
CIZC also said that the case of the late Machaya is a litmus test in as far as the government of Zimbabwe’s commitment to the protection of the girl child is concerned and the recent claim by the country’s Justice Minister ranks the country lowly in terms of protecting the girl child.
“It is shocking that police in Zimbabwe have often responded with brute force against citizens calling for economic, political and electoral reforms yet they have developed a lackadaisical approach in the case of Memory Machaya. There can never be any excuse on the issue of Machaya whom we know had been married off to a man named Evans Momberume,” noted CiZC.
