Bulawayo – A 21-year-old Advanced Level student at Binga High School has failed in his appeal against conviction and sentence for the rape of a 13-year-old Form 1 learner in a school classroom. The High Court judges hearing the appeal have instead criticised the school’s administration and deemed the original sentence lenient.
Justices Munamato Mutevedzi and Naison Chivayo, presiding over the case, expressed their concern that a 21-year-old man was even attending a secondary school, labelling the case a prime example of the dangers of allowing adults to mingle as “peers” with children.
The judges stated that 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 following the allegations, despite boasting that he was untouchable because of his father’s alleged influence.
The court heard that Kabome raped the juvenile twice on March 8, 2023.
According to court records, Kabome had initially proposed love to the complainant, who turned him down. Later that morning, the girl was in the school garden for a lesson. She was delayed in finishing her task, and her teacher instructed her to complete her work while the rest of the class attended assembly.
Kabome reportedly took the complainant’s bag to his classroom and threw it into a corner. When the complainant followed and attempted to retrieve her bag, he grabbed her, undressed her, and, after she tried to resist, pulled out a knife and threatened to stab her before raping 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. She then confided in a day scholar friend, requesting that she bring her phone to school the following day so she could call her mother.
Before the friend could bring the phone, she sent a message to the complainant’s mother advising her of the issue.
On May 10, 2023, the girl finally contacted her mother, who was in Hwange, and informed her of the ordeal. The mother immediately travelled to the school and confronted the authorities about the rape.
Kabome denied the allegations, claiming he had never met the complainant nor raped her as alleged, and continued to attend lessons.
However, during the trial, the State presented evidence from three witnesses, including the complainant’s mother and the matron. The complainant also received counselling from the Social Welfare Department, and her mother took her to the hospital for examination. A pregnancy test was initially positive, but a subsequent test was negative after she experienced health complications and sought further medical assistance. She maintained her insistence that Kabome had violated her twice.
A medical affidavit confirming the sexual violation was tendered and admitted by the court as evidence.
The trial magistrate analysed the evidence and concluded that Kabome had raped the complainant, leading to his conviction.
Kabome then approached the High Court appealing the lower court’s decision, arguing that the complainant’s evidence was inconsistent and contradicted by the testimony of the matron.
However, the judges dismissed these claims, noting that the delay in reporting the matter was due to the complainant’s inability to immediately access her mother.
“Her numerous and persistent attempts were all indicative of a complainant who remained desirous to make a report despite earlier setbacks,” they stated. “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 added.
They also strongly criticised the matron for failing to assist the girl and attempting 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,” they ruled.
“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,” the judges concluded, upholding the original conviction.
