A 21-year-old man has been handed a 40-year prison sentence by the Bulawayo Regional Magistrates’ Court for two counts of rape.
He will serve 20 years for each count, one after the other.
The court heard that back on 15 February 2026, at about 3 am, the offender, Gift Ncube, broke into his 81-year-old neighbour’s house in Hope Fountain.
He attacked her, threatened her life, and strangled her before forcing her to strip and raping her in the sitting room.
Ncube then dragged her into the bedroom and raped her again.
After all that, he actually fell asleep in the poor woman’s bed.
The victim managed to escape and get help from her neighbours, who performed a citizen’s arrest after finding him still naked and fast asleep.
It turned out he entered the house through a broken window.
The Nation Prosecution Authority (NPA) urged communities to protect the elderly, saying breaking into a sanctuary of a senior citizen and subjecting them to such trauma is a violation of the highest order.
