MBABANE – A Mozambican man was yesterday found guilty of raping 12 women from 2008 to 2012.
The youngest girl he raped was aged 11 years and the eldest was 20 years old at the commission of the offences. The first rape, according to the indictment, was committed on January 19, 2008 and the last one on May 13, 2012. Carlos Nhambombe of Maputo was charged with 18 counts of rape. The Crown had alleged that he raped 18 women in Mbabane.
He is said to have lured the complainants from the city centre by promising some of them non-existent jobs as house helpers and accompanied them to the ‘prospective employers’, usually a nurse at Mbabane Clinic. The court also heard that Nhambombe deceived some of the younger girls that a Mbabane Clinic nurse needed assistance for which they would be paid.
However, along the way, according to the evidence, he would suggest that they take shortcuts, reveal his true intentions and rape them in the bushes. Nhambombe was convicted by Judge Mbutfo Mamba.
In 2022, the Mozambican applied to be acquitted and discharged in terms of Section 174(4) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, 1938. The court only acquitted and discharged him on three counts at that time and on three others yesterday. He was convicted on the remaining 12 counts.
Nhambombe conducted his own defence, while the Crown was represented by Acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Lomvula Hlophe, assisted by Precious Dlamini.
On being arraigned, Nhambombe pleaded not guilty on all the counts. The Crown led 50 witnesses in support of its case. No evidence was led or tendered regarding one of the counts.
The complainant in the first charge, *Susan was 16 years on June 23, 2010 when Nhambombe raped her. She was 25 years old when she testified in court on May 2, 2019.
She informed the court that on June 23, 2010, she went to one of the supermarkets in Mbabane, Pick n Pay, to purchase some food items and when she was about to enter the shop, an unknown man touched her on her shoulder from behind. She said the man enquired whether she was employed or still at school.
Susan submitted that she informed the man that she was neither employed nor at school, to which he responded by telling her that a nurse who worked at Mbabane Clinic needed someone to work as a babysitter.
Susan said she agreed to take the offer and the man led her towards the clinic. They went past Total Filling Station and thereafter, had to use a foot path through a forest or bush, which the man said was a short cut to their destination, she testified.
She also submitted that the man showed her a house in the distance as their destination. However, once in the forest, she stated, the man told her that his intention of luring her into the forest was to have sex with her and not to offer her any employment.
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Some complainants’ relatives welcome conviction
MBABANE – Some of the relatives of the complainants welcome the conviction of the man who raped their loved one over a decade ago.
The court is in the process of determining whether aggravating factors exist in the offences Carlos Nhambombe of Maputo, Mozambique, was convicted of and he will be sentenced in due course. However, the conviction on its own was well received by some of the relatives of the complainants, some of whom were raped in 2008.
Nhambombe is said to have threatened some of his victims with a knife before raping them. **Nomalanga’s mother told this publication that even though the Mozambican is still to be sentenced, the conviction on its own comforts them. She said her daughter was traumatised by the incident, such that she became reluctant to go to school and was uncomfortable in the company of men. “This has been hanging, not only over her head, but ours as well. It really bothered us to see our daughter change in no time from a bubbly young girl to being sad all the time,” said Nomalanga. *Nomzamo said she relocated with her orphaned niece, who was sexually violated by Nhambombe, with the hope that a change of environment would improve her condition.
She said the incident remains fresh in their minds because of the impact it had on the family when they received the sad news of the rape.
**Not real names to protect the complainants from further harm.
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I don’t think rapists use condoms – judge
MBABANE – “I don’t think that rapists use condoms.”
This was said by Judge Mbutfo Mamba yesterday when the Crown was making submissions on whether the offences the Mozambican, Carlos Nhambombe, was convicted of were accompanied by aggravating factors.
Judge Mamba said if it was correct that rapists do not use condoms, it would mean all rape offences are accompanied by aggravating factors.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Lomvula Hlophe submitted that in every rape where a condom was not used, the Crown alleges aggravating factors because of the seriousness of the exposure to contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
According to Judge Mamba: “It would be different to say he exposed them to X because he suffered from X.”
Hlophe said the issue would be that they would have to be in a position to prove that if the complainant is infected, she got that infection from the rapist. “We allege the exposure to the risk of contracting illnesses which we know some are serious and not easy to treat,” said Hlophe.
Judge Mamba said: “I do understand. I’m only trying to reason to say, is it really good jurisprudence to be throwing kites in the air? For me no, I don’t think it’s good. Science is there, the material is there; we just have to tap into it.”
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*Full article available in our publication.
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