Zvikomborero Parafini
A 50-year-old taxi driver allegedly raped and impregnated his neighbour after she asked for a lift without enough money for the fare home.
Owen Muzondo was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa.
The 25-year-old complainant is Muzondo’s neighbour in Waterfalls.
The court heard that on April 5, 2021, the two met along Charter Road in the CBD where Muzondo ranked his pirate taxi.
The woman approached him and asked for a lift home saying her money wasn’t enough and she would pay the full amount when they got home, and he agreed.
On the way, Muzondo allegedly stopped the vehicle to relive himself and returned with a gun which he started cleaning while the woman was watching.
After cleaning it, Muzondo put the gun under the seat and went to the backseat where the woman was.
He asked her if she was married, and she said yes.
He then asked why her husband hadn’t given her enough money for bus fare and started fondling her.
The woman screamed for help, but Muzondo told her that she had two options, to die or have sex with him.
He then went on to rape her and threatened to kill her, and her family, if she disclosed the incident to anyone.
A month later she realised that she was pregnant and went to Muzondo’s workplace and informed him but he threatened to kill her.
When the woman’s mother became suspicious, she ran away from home to their rural home where she later gave birth.
She returned to Harare when the baby was one-year old, and that’s when she told her mother what had happened to her.
Muzondo started visiting the woman and asked to see the child and get him a birth certificate.
Muzondo asked her to be his wife and she refused.