Businessman Charles Guvamatanga says rape charges ...

Businessman Charles Guvamatanga says rape charges are ‘fictitious’

Zim Now Writer

Prominent business man Charles Guvamatanga has maintained that he is innocent from rape allegations which he is currently facing.

Guvamatanga has labelled the charges as “fictitious”.

The trial opened on Tuesday morning before magistrate Stanford Mambanje at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts.

This follows his arrest in April this year with the State alleging the incident occurred in Greendale after a drinking binge.

His lawyers Dumisani Mthombeni and Oliver Marwa Torro questioned the girl’s narrative that she was a virgin who could not scream while getting violated for 15 minutes in a house with her two sisters who were sleeping five metres away from her.

“Accused will demonstrate that the complainant’s whole story is false and unbelievable. For example, why would she not scream when she allegedly saw that accused was about to rape her or even during the alleged rape or soon after since she knew her sisters were in the lounge just about 6m away,” they argued.

It is also their argument that the girl was in tight fitting clothes as demonstrated by videos they showed the court but were not torn in the alleged violent act.

“It is also curious why the tight-fitting clothing that the complainant was in did not show any signs of force and that when the complainant’s sisters inspected the alleged crime scene there was no evidence consistent with the allegations. These are poorly choreographed rape allegations by someone desperate to save face and embarrassed,” the lawyers submitted.

It is his further argument that he was abused by the girl and has opened a case against her.

Torro told the court that he suspects the girl, who had shown some unusual “interest” in him earlier when they were clubbing, could have drugged him and subsequently raped him while he was asleep.

“He never raped complainant in the manner alleged or at all. In fact, he is the actual victim in this case because complainant committed an act of aggravated indecent assault upon him while he was in an involuntarily induced sleep and inebriation.

“Accused was later shocked to see complainant in his bedroom, half naked when he was woken up by some unusual painful feeling of discomfort, the weight he felt over his body and rubbing of his penis against something.

“He was shocked to see complainant in his bed, sitting on top of him holding his penis with her right hand and trying to force his penis into her vagina. Accused noticed she was half naked with her top on and pantie on which she had pulled by the side as she tried to force accused’s penis into her vagina. Complainant had removed her trousers she had been wearing earlier on,” his lawyer submitted.

Torro told the court that the allegations came after he declined the girl’s advances.

“The rape allegations by complainant are clearly false, an afterthought and a counter report after accused told complainant that he was to go and report her conduct to her sisters. Complainant also felt very embarrassed after accused condemned her conduct, what she had done to him and obviously found it convenient to counter accused’s report so that she could appear as the victim when in actual fact she probably raped accused. She was also angry that accused had shown no interest in her, declined her invitation to have sex, thus was too embarrassed,” his lawyers submitted.

The trial will continue on Wednesday.