A A Zambezi man who was found guilty of raping his niece in 2020 was sentenced to 22 years’ in prison in the Katima Mulilo Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
The man (53) raped the girl, who was 10 years old at the time, on three different occasions between 10 and 12 June 2020 at a village in the Katima Mulilo Rural constituency.
Magistrate Barry Mufana found the man guilty on all three charges of rape and sentenced him to 15 years in prison on each charge.
The magistrate ordered that the sentence on the second count should run concurrently with the sentence on the first count.
Mufana also ordered that eight years of the sentence imposed for count three should run concurrently with the sentence on the first count.
The victim testified that the first time her uncle raped her, he threatened to kill her if she told anyone about it. She therefore did not tell her grandmother.
The girl said on the second occasion, her uncle found her alone at home as her grandmother went to a neighbour’s house.
He brought her packets of maize snacks to buy her silence and raped her again.
The third time he raped her, he came with N$4 and a radio.
Her grandmother, however, then caught him in the act, upon which he fled.
The man, who represented himself, pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Mufana, in his judgement delivered on Friday, found that the accused’s versions of the incidents amounted to “mere denials”.
“The accused suggested in his evidence that the second witness hated him, but the exact reason why she would hate him did not come to light in his testimony nor was it put to any state witness.
“This, in my view, was not by coincidence, but proof of the fact that the accused is the correct individual that sexually violated the complainant on all three occasions.
His version is found to be false beyond reasonable doubt,” he stated.
The state was represented by Brunah Mukoya.
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