SANGOMA, ONE ROOM, WINE, NUMEROUS RAPE CASES
A 60-YEAR-OLD sangoma gave his 21-year-old victim wine until she passed out and then raped her multiple times which led her to get pregnant.
This happened in Shamva where the sangoma, Darlington Mabudu, also known as Sekuru Nyashanu in Epworth, had taken the victim for a cleansing ceremony.
Mabudu allegedly convinced the owner of the house to give them one room where they could sleep together.
He told her that the spirit medium wanted wine and they drank together until she passed out.
She allegedly woke up the next morning with semen on her undergarment, but she didn’t ask him what had happened.
They spent three weeks there and went to Westgate for another ceremony where he gave her wine and raped her on numerous occasions.
The matter came to light after the woman eloped to another man and Mabudu went and warned him to leave her saying she was his wife.
She went for a scan which confirmed her pregnancy, but the dates didn’t match with the days she had slept with her new boyfriend.
The State said in May last year, the woman was selling fish in Epworth when she met Mabudu, who told her that he wanted fish, but didn’t have money and persuaded her to accompany him to his house.
She agreed and along the way, he introduced himself as a sangoma.
He told her that she was possessed by a bad spirit which had to be exorcised and gave her his phone number so that she could call him if she wanted to be cleansed.
The woman told her mother about her encounter and they visited him the following day.
The woman’s mother gave Mabudu permission to conduct the ceremony and they were told that it would cost them US$150.
Mabudu then told the woman to accompany him to cleanse other people.
Later that month he invited her to a cleansing ceremony in Shamva.
She then filed a police report alleging that she didn’t remember when she slept with Mabudu, but only remembered waking up with semen on her undergarment.
Ethel Mahachi appeared for the State.