30-year prison sentences for Katima gang rape

TWO young men who were convicted on gang-rape charges in the Katima Mulilo Regional Court this week were each sentenced to an effective 30 years’ imprisonment yesterday.

The trial of Makala Muyamenwa (21) and George Lunyango (21) started before Magistrate William Kasitomo in the Katima Mulilo Regional Court on Monday with both accused men pleading not guilty to five counts of rape. After neither of the two men testified in their own defence following the closing of the case for the prosecution, the Magistrate convicted each of them on three charges of rape on Wednesday.Their trial concluded yesterday with the Magistrate sentencing Muyamenwa and Lunyango to ten years’ imprisonment on each of the three charges.Magistrate Kasitomo further ordered that these sentences are to be served consecutively, with the effect that Muyamenwa and Lunyango have each received an effective term of 30 years’ imprisonment.Muyamenwa, Lunyango and a third suspect, Mubone Given Chikaziza, had been charged with gang-raping a 17-year-old girl at Katima Mulilo’s Dairy Compound on November 14 2005.Chikaziza died before the start of his and his co-suspects’ trial.According to the complainant in the case she had left her house during the night of November 14 2005 to go to the toilet outside.As she returned to the house, she was accosted by three men, who held her down and took turns raping her, she said.She claimed that she could see the three suspects and also recognised them by their voices.The three suspects however told the Police after their arrest that consensual sex had taken place with the complainant.Each of them also claimed, though, that he himself did not take part in the sexual intercourse, but only helped his co-accused in the act.That was not what the complainant testified, though, and it was also not what the Magistrate found in his verdict.The prosecution initially charged that the three suspects had raped the complainant five times in all.The Magistrate was not satisfied that there was evidence to prove this.Muyamenwa and Lunyango stood trial without legal representation.Public Prosecutor Pieter Smit conducted the prosecution.After neither of the two men testified in their own defence following the closing of the case for the prosecution, the Magistrate convicted each of them on three charges of rape on Wednesday.Their trial concluded yesterday with the Magistrate sentencing Muyamenwa and Lunyango to ten years’ imprisonment on each of the three charges.Magistrate Kasitomo further ordered that these sentences are to be served consecutively, with the effect that Muyamenwa and Lunyango have each received an effective term of 30 years’ imprisonment.Muyamenwa, Lunyango and a third suspect, Mubone Given Chikaziza, had been charged with gang-raping a 17-year-old girl at Katima Mulilo’s Dairy Compound on November 14 2005.Chikaziza died before the start of his and his co-suspects’ trial.According to the complainant in the case she had left her house during the night of November 14 2005 to go to the toilet outside.As she returned to the house, she was accosted by three men, who held her down and took turns raping her, she said.She claimed that she could see the three suspects and also recognised them by their voices.The three suspects however told the Police after their arrest that consensual sex had taken place with the complainant.Each of them also claimed, though, that he himself did not take part in the sexual intercourse, but only helped his co-accused in the act.That was not what the complainant testified, though, and it was also not what the Magistrate found in his verdict.The prosecution initially charged that the three suspects had raped the complainant five times in all.The Magistrate was not satisfied that there was evidence to prove this.Muyamenwa and Lunyango stood trial without legal representation.Public Prosecutor Pieter Smit conducted the prosecution.