Story by Providence Maraneli
A 14- year-old girl from Gwanda who was allegedly raped by her father and another close relative is living in fear after being threatened with death by those who are supposed to protect her.
With the pain she has endured after allegedly being sexually abused by her father far from peeling off, the 14-year-old girl has once again fallen in the wrong hands.
Like an open wound that continues to weep and stubbornly refuses to heal, the mention of her ordeal inflicts even more pain.
Pain that she can neither contain nor evade.
Her innocence has been violated. Her body battered in ways no girl should ever experience.
With tears flowing down her cheeks, Kimberly Hove (not her real name) narrates how society has let her down.
“I wrote these letters because I was scared that no one will hear my story. I was raped by my father and he is out. He passed through my uncle’s house going to South Africa and now my other relative is forcing himself on me and he was arrested and still he was released. Whenever I go to the shops and I see him, he threatens me saying I will kill you. I don’t think I deserve to live.”
While ZBC is in possession of a letter written and stamped by Mberengwa Police to West Nickelson Primary School confirming the arrest of the father for raping his child, the crime seems to have gone unpunished after he was later released under unclear circumstances and has since left the country for South Africa.
As the 14-year-old girl was yet to heal from the scars of the heinous and traumatic incident another close family member is alleged to have taken advantage and raped her on several occasions.
Hers is a desperate cry for help amid revelations that the alleged perpetrator is allegedly threatening the young girl with death.
“Its so sad , after we took her from the village head in Mberengwa we took her to Msasa and they counselled her and she was showing that she has healed , then last year she started crying again and if you ask she was scared to talk and I then found letter a letter on my bed narrating that she is being raped by a family member , I took her to the police and the uncle was arrested , we went for doctors examination in Gwanda and the doctor acknowledged that she had been raped and when we came back the perpetrator was already out and when I met him told me that you wont do anything because I know big people,” narrated the minor’s guardian.
Such cases have been on the increase lately with an eight year old girl having been raped and impregnated in Tsholotsho last year while another nine year old girl from Bindura suffered the same fate.
