The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Friday, November 8, 1991 — The wife of the jailed popular singer, Paul Matavire, is appealing to President Mugabe to pardon her husband because she and her two children are living in dire poverty.

Cde Constance Matavire said at the couple’s Nguboyenja flat in Bulawayo that since her husband was jailed nearly six months ago, for raping a physically challenged woman, she had been leading a beggar’s life together with her two daughters.

Reacting to Monday’s Supreme Court decision dismissing Matavire’s appeal against conviction and sentence, Cde Constance said the only option left now was for her to appeal to the President Mugabe.

“I am appealing to President Mugabe to release him because we are suffering”, she said.

The jailed singer was the family’s only source of income. His wife is unemployed.

Matavire, who calls himself Dr Love, is currently serving his two-year jail term at Harare Central Prison.

He was jailed last May after being convicted on one count of rape by the then regional magistrate, Mr Lawrence Kamocha.

The court found that Matavire and his bandmate Peter Mabvuwa took turns to rape a physically challenged woman two years ago during the Jairos Jiri Band’s rural tour of Chuwundura communal lands in the Midlands. Matavire’s wife said she was not receiving any assistance from the Jairos Jiri Association, Matavire’s employers.

The Band used to be a money spinner for the organisation, which is Zimbabwe’s biggest rehabilitation centre for the physically challenged.

Matavire’s wife and their children Kudzanai (5) and Wadzanai (who is 13 months old) survive from handouts given to them by family friends and relatives.