Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) manager Leonard
Rwambiwa was yesterday slapped with a three-month jail term for fondling his
female subordinate in his office.
Rwambiwa (43) will, however, not do time behind bars after
Harare magistrate Yeukai Chigodora wholly suspended the prison term and ordered
him to pay $1 000 fine instead.
It was the State’s case that the complainant in the matter,
who is a married woman, was at the Zimdef offices on July 9, 2019 in the
morning when Rwambiwa summoned and requested her to prepare tea for him as it
was part of her duties.
The court heard that after preparing the tea, she took it
to Rwambiwa’s office and as she was about to leave the room, Rwambiwa grabbed
her from behind before fondling her backside without her consent.
At that particular moment, the woman did not report the
matter, but later confided to her workmate.
After gathering enough courage, the woman then reported the
incident to yet another workmate, who, in turn, confronted Rwambiwa, but he
denied the allegation.
The matter was eventually reported to the police, leading
to Rwambiwa’s arrest. In her judgment, Chigodora said the State led damning and
incriminating evidence against Rwambiwa, adding that he never led any evidence
and never called his witness to discredit the evidence of the sexually
assaulted woman.
The magistrate further said “all the State witnesses were
corroborated in their evidence” and that the court had found that there was
overwhelming evidence against Rwambiwa.
“The crime of indecent assault should not be taken lightly.
It is aggravating and there is a lot of stigma associated with such offences,
especially when it involves a married woman. Once this happens at a workplace,
it now becomes an issue of sexual harassment,” the magistrate said before
imposing the three-month jail term. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment