Beitbridge Sangoma kidnaps, rapes minor (14) for 3 months

REBECCA MAZVIDZA
TWO NATIONS REPORTER

BEITBRIDGE-Regional Magistrate, Innocent Bepura has sentenced an alleged Beitbridge Sangoma to an effective 24 years in jail for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl and raping her for four months.
Dumisani Banda (49) of no fixed abode kidnapped the girl on March 26, 2023, and illegally crossed the border to Musina with her. He raped her until June 24, 2023, when her mother tracked her to Musina.
Magistrate Bepura sentenced him to ten years for human trafficking and 18 years for rape. He suspended four years of the sentence.
Circumstances are that Banda met the minor at Engen Garage, Beitbridge around 9 am. She was headed to her aunt’s place in Bulawayo. He lured her to South Africa after promising to get her a job as a maid.
When they reached the river he tied her legs and hands and bundled her into a boat after she refused to go further. Banda illegally crossed into SA with the minor.
After crossing the Limpopo River, they boarded a vehicle which dropped them near an orange plantation. They moved to a bushy area. Banda threatened to kill the minor if she escaped. He told her that everyone in the bush was his friend. He also threatened to bewitch her if she ran away.
He told her that she was now his wife and continued raping her every night.
On June 20, 2023, they went to Boxer Building in Messina, South Africa where Banda established a stall to sell his herbs.
The girl’s mother got word that her daughter was staying with a sangoma at the building and she went to SA on June 24, 2023.
She reported the matter to SA Police who then accompaned Banda and the minor to the Zimbabwean Police at the border post. The mother narrated her daughter’s ordeal and Banda was arrested.