A serial rapist who left prison recently under Presidential
Amnesty is battling for life at Gutu Rural Hospital after angry villagers
ganged up and attacked him with catapults and knobkerries.
On Monday Magistrate Mandlenkosi Ndlovu had to hold remand
hearing by Albert Mativenga (32)’s hospital bed but he could not see, talk or
hear. His head was swollen like a balloon and blood was all over his face.
Mativenga is a dangerous serial rapist who left prison
prematurely because of a Presidential Amnesty declared at the onset of the
Covid-19 pandemic in March.
Police officers who spoke to The Mirror on condition of
anonymity said Mativenga is a ruthless rapist who would even attempt to chop
off his victims’ hands.
His capture on Saturday in the Mushaviri Resettlement area
under Chief Gutu followed an outcry after he raped two school kids on different
occasions and attempted to kill another woman. Police were hunting for him but
villagers went on their own mission until they found him.
Sources said there was a vicious confrontation with the
heavily built Mativenga throwing stones and going after his hunters. However,
the villagers shot him with stones from catapults until he dropped to the
ground unconscious.
They beat him up to pulp, said the sources.
A Mirror reporter who went into the ward found Mativenga
unconscious with nurses saying that his life was hanging by a thread.
The State says June 3 and 15 this year Mativenga separately
raped two juveniles in the area under Chief Gutu. On June 14 2020 and in
village 4 Mushaviri he lured young girls from Village 8, threatened them with
death before raping a grade 5 juvenile.
The state further said villagers received information that
Mativenga was in Village 16 and mobilized themselves before melting mob justice
on him.
Magistrate Ndlovu remanded him in custody to July 6 2020
and he will be under the guard of prison officers while in hospital.
Kudakwashe Muza prosecuted. Masvingo Mirror
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