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RG official jailed for raping heavily pregnant woman

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A 38-YEAR-OLD Registrar-General’s Office official, who is based at Makombe Building in Harare, was yesterday slapped with a 16-year jail term after being convicted of raping a heavily pregnant woman.

A 38-YEAR-OLD Registrar-General’s Office official, who is based at Makombe Building in Harare, was yesterday slapped with a 16-year jail term after being convicted of raping a heavily pregnant woman.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

The woman had approached Tongai Hungwe’s office to apply for her birth certificate.

Prosecutor Ephraim Zinyandu said sometime in February this year, Hungwe met the complainant in his office after being referred by another official for verification of her birth certificate.

The court heard Hungwe told the complainant to leave her national identity card and her birth certificate for verification and asked her to bring her mother.

On April 10 at around 9am, the complainant visited Hungwe’s office to collect her national identity card and her birth certificate so she could go and register her pregnancy.

However, Hungwe delayed the complainant and at around 3pm, he ordered her to follow him to another room and at the time, he had the woman’s particulars.

When they got to the said room, he ordered the complainant to sit on a chair, and he locked the door and told her he wanted to have sexual intercourse with her.

Suddenly, the court heard, he pushed the woman to the ground and raped her once and after the incident, the complainant went straight and reported the matter to the police, leading to Hungwe’s arrest.

Hungwe will serve 12 years behind bars after regional magistrate Lucy Mungwari suspended four years on condition of good behaviour.

During sentencing, Hungwe was warned by the magistrate to take the court proceedings seriously after he kept laughing despite the conviction.

In her ruling, Mungwari said if the complainant, who was not named in court papers in order to protect her identity, had wanted to misrepresent facts in order to please her husband, she would not have reported the matter.