Buhera man to spend 70 years behind bars for human...

Buhera man to spend 70 years behind bars for human trafficking

Zim Now Writer

Buhera in Manicaland Province has been talked about for different reasons. At some point, late musician Paul Mpofu, who spent years with Kasongo then fronted by Ketai Muchawaya, gave Murambinda in Buhera a lift with his hit Murambinda.

The story of the woman Mpofu appears with on a bicycle in the video is not like the one that Witness Jichichi of Muchuwa Village under Chief Nyashanu took along with him to Masvingo.

She was a married woman and Jichichi has been dragged before the courts facing charges of trafficking a married woman to Masvingo Province and staying with her against her will from November 2021 to January 2022.

Rusape regional magistrate, Francis Mapfumo sentenced Jichichi to 70 years in jail.

The single count of human trafficking earned Jichichi 10 years in prison, while three counts of rape got him 20 years imprisonment for each of the counts.

Jichichi, however, was acquitted of deliberately infecting the woman with HIV.

For the State prosecutor Marlon Makamba said Jichichi lied to the victim and her husband that he was an employee of a development partner and could facilitate their employment with the organisation in Masvingo.

Jichichi duped the husband to remain in the village and lied that he was going to the development partner’s local offices to sign the employment contract with his wife.

Little did the woman know that she was being taken into captivity.

Jichichi would force himself on the woman while in Masvingo and in the process, infected her with HIV.

The woman said Jichichi would always follow her around and was only released when he learnt that the woman’s relatives were looking for her on both social media platforms.