A 21-YEAR-OLD Advanced Level boarder at Binga High School has lost his appeal against conviction and sentence for raping a 13-year-old Form 1 learner in a school classroom.
High Court judges Justices Munamato Mutevedzi and Naison Chivayo, who heard the appeal, said the conviction and sentence were lenient.
The judges said it was not usual to have a 21-year-old man learning at a secondary school, adding that his case typified why it is dangerous to let adults pretend to be peers with children.
The judges said the school administrators were negligent and culpable for the horror that the 13-year-old girl went through because they let a mature man ravage her.
Land Sinclair Kabome was arrested after the allegations surfaced, despite declaring that he was untouchable because of his father’s alleged influence.
Kabome raped the juvenile twice on March 8, 2023.
The court heard that Kabome proposed love to the complainant, who turned him down and later that morning, she went to the school garden for a lesson.
She was late in finishing her task and her teacher directed that she finishes her work while the others went for assembly.
- Fresh land invasions hit Whitecliff
- Pomona cash row escalates
- Border Timbers targets European markets
- SA name strong A side for Zim tour
Keep Reading
The girl left the garden after the others had dispersed from assembly at around 1pm and headed to the classroom to collect her bag, where Kabome accosted her.
He proposed love to the girl, who rejected her again, but Kabome grabbed her and fondled her breasts.
Kabome reportedly took the complainant’s bag and went with it to his classroom, where he threw it into a corner.
The complainant followed and when she attempted to pick the bag, he grabbed her and undressed her.
She tried to resist, but Kabome pulled out a knife and threatened to stab her before he raped her twice.
The complainant tried to report the rape to the school matron, Brenda Siyaswekwa, but was told that she would be attended to in the evening.
Another attempt by the girl to report the matter to the matron the next morning also failed before she advised her friend, who was a day scholar, of what had happened.
She requested the friend to bring her phone the next day so that she could call her mother and advise her.
Before the friend brought her phone to school she sent a message to the complainant’s mother advising her of the issue.
On May 10, 2023, the girl called her mother who was in Hwange and notified her.
The mother visited the school and confronted the authorities about the rape.
Kabome denied the allegations saying he had neither met the complainant nor raped her as alleged and went to attend lessons.
However, in court, the State led evidence from three witnesses, including the complainant’s mother and the matron.
The complainant later received counselling from the Social Welfare Department and her mother took her to the hospital, where she was examined and a pregnancy test was conducted and it came out positive.
After a few days, she returned to school and experienced health complications and returned home.
She sought medical assistance where another pregnancy test was conducted and the results were negative.
She insisted that Kabome had violated her twice.
A medical affidavit which confirmed the sexual violation was tendered and was admitted by the court as evidence.
The trial magistrate analysed the evidence and concluded that Kabome had raped the complainant and convicted him.
However, Kabome approached the High Court appealing the lower court’s decision saying the complainant’s evidence was inconsistent and was contradicted by the testimony of the matron.
The judges, however, noted that the delay in reporting the matter was as a result of the inability of the complainant to have immediate access to her mother.
“Her numerous and persistent attempts were all indicative of a complainant who remained desirous to make a report despite earlier setbacks.
“That the matron did not readily avail herself to allow the complainant to make the report cannot be held against the young girl.
“In any event, the two days within which she finally made the report to her mother cannot be said to be unreasonable in the circumstances considering her mother was not readily available and the other person whom she could confide in was hostile. We find it preposterous, therefore, to allege that the complaint was not made timeously,” the judges said.
They also rapped the matron for failing to assist the girl and trying to cover up the matter.
“In a nutshell, the school had tried to cover up the abuse. With that, the court a quo cannot be faulted for rejecting the concocted evidence of the matron which was clearly intended to hide the school’s malfeasance.
“In the end and correctly so once again, it found the evidence of the complainant and her mother to have been clear and satisfactory to ground the appellant’s conviction,” they ruled.
