Walt's agent in Zimbabwe -- who refuses to take a number and thus must be referred to only as SeeZee -- sends the following report from the online edition of NewsDay, which we republish verbatim.
A HARARE teenager yesterday was lucky to escape a prison sentence for raping a six-year-old girl after the court ordered that he be canned for the crime.
Regional magistrate Fadzai Mtombeni convicted the teenager for contravening the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. The 13–year–old boy from Waterfalls had denied the allegations of rape, but was convicted due to overwhelming evidence.
“The accused to receive a moderate corporal punishment of six strokes with a rattan cane to be administered in private at Harare Remand Prison by a designated prison officer,” ruled Mtombeni.
Allegations against the boy were that he had sexual intercourse with a neighbour’s daughter without her consent. It was the State’s case that on March 8 this year, the complainant was playing with two friends. It is alleged that one of the friend’s sisters then called the two and they went away leaving the complainant alone.
The accused then called the complainant who responded and they went into a nearby maize field where he laid her down under a tree surrounded by maize stalks. He then removed the girl’s panties and had intercourse with her.
When the complainant went back home, she asked her father for some water to bathe and the father referred her to the mother. When the mother was just about to bathe her, she discovered that she was bleeding. When she asked her what had transpired, the complainant refused to speak. She then took her to the police where the girl finally opened up and disclosed what had happened, leading to the arrest of the accused person.
Such is the state of "journalism" in a country which once had one of the highest literacy rates in the Dark Continent. Of course that was in the bad old days of colonialism.
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