Cabinet gives nod to mandatory rape sentences

Harare – Cabinet on Tuesday approved amendments to the Criminal Code, which seek to impose a mandatory sentence for rape and murder.
said the amendments were contained in the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Bill, 2022.
The Bill was brought before Cabinet by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, as Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Legislation.
“The Bill also provides for a mandatory sentence in rape and murder cases,” he said in a post Cabinet briefing.
The Cabinet decision comes as the country is still in shock over the rape and impregnating of two nine year old girls in two separate incidents this year.
In the latest incident, the victim is now six months pregnant and her plight came to light after suspicious school authorities took the grade 3 pupil to Bindura Hospital last week where she was found to be with child.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police have arrested two suspects aged 17 years in connection with the crime, while the girl who is from Kambira Village in Bindura is currently admitted at the Bindura District Hospital under the care of the Social Development Department.
In the other shocking case, the 9 year-old girl from Masekesa village in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North province, under Chief Gampu, gave birth last week.
She gave birth to a baby girl via a Caesarean section at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) where she had been under observation by a team of medical specialists.
Speaking in Parliament in July, Ziyambi said while a mandatory sentence for aggravated rape of a child, gang rape and rape by person who knew he was infected with HIV needed to be enacted into the criminal code, with 20 years prison suggested, it must still be lower than the sentence for murder so the rapist is not tempted to kill rape victim.
“Offences such as raping children, gang rape and rape where the offender knew they were infected with HIV are categorised as life threatening to the victim. Thus a stiffer custodial sentence of such offences to match the severity of the crime would be appropriate.
“The level of such a mandatory sentence must not, however, be the same as the mandatory sentence for murder in aggravating circumstances because the rapist might then be motivated to murder his victim after he has raped her. It shall be recommended to Cabinet that the mandatory penalty for rape in aggravating circumstances be at 20 years minimum,” he said then.
Meanwhile, Muswere said the amendments also encompass further enhanced provisions on the definition of dangerous drugs.
“In addition, it expands the definition of dangerous drugs and also amends the elements which form the crime of abuse of public office.”