WOMEN’S Affairs, Gender and Community Development minister Oppah Muchungiri has indirectly accused judges and magistrates of handing lenient sentences to rapists saying some of them were perpetrators and always imagined themselves in the dock when passing sentence.
CHIEF REPORTER
Muchunguri told the Senate on Thursday last week that the prevalence of rape cases was worrying to the extent that Cabinet recently set up a ministerial committee to tackle the scourge.
Matabeleland South senator Sithembile Mlotshwa had asked Muchinguri if there were standard sentences for rape.
“Minister, seeing the escalation in rape and domestic violence cases, how far has your ministry gone in trying to have a standard minimum and maximum sentence for these cases? What are you doing with the community service sentence given for rape cases where victims are exposed to the perpetrators?” asked Mlotshwa.
“We have issues concerning community service penalties being passed by courts. I have one case in my village where a father raped his daughter and was punished through community service some three weeks ago.
“He goes back to the same home where the child is. What can you do with a judgment which has already been passed because life is now difficult for the young girl?”
Muchinguri responded: “My heart really bleeds when I address issues of gender-based violence. I agree with the honourable senator on her observations.
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“The judiciary has not been spared by a judgment which we have been perturbed with, of a very serious offence. You have a judgment which calls for a criminal to serve community service.
“What you need to understand is that those judges are also human beings. Some of them would have raped and will find it very difficult to pass a stiff judgment because they imagine themselves in that situation.”
Muchinguri said her ministry was concerned with the high rate of rape cases and Cabinet had recommended the setting up of an inter- ministerial committee to look into the issue.
The committee consists of ministers of Primary and Secondary Education, Local Government, Public works and National Housing, Health and Child Care as well as Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
“The concern is that where some criminals steal livestock, there is always a mandatory sentence. The concern that Cabinet has is that some of the sentences are not stiff enough to deter people to continue causing or engaging in rape or criminal activities,” said Muchunguri.
Earlier this year, Harare West MP Jessie Majome moved a motion calling for the introduction of a mandatory stiff sentence of 30 years and above for rapists and other perpetrators of gender-based domestic violence.
