A WIDOW has appeared before Hwange magistrates charged with RAPING her male friend after a wild all-night drinking bender.
Vaines Mupande, 39, pleaded not guilty to a charge of aggravated indecent assault last Friday.
The widow, from Kachezeya Village in the Musuna area of Hwange, told magistrate Dambudzo Malunga her accuser consented to sex.
She was remanded out of custody to May 9 for the continuation of her trial.
Prosecuting, Bheki Tshabalala said Mupande and her accuser had been drinking alcohol at the Zambezi Supply Bottle Store with a second man on October 10, 2009.
Just after 10PM, the two men excused themselves and left.
Mupande, the court heard, followed the pair after ordering five Scuds – an opaque local traditional brew.
She followed them to the second man’s home where their drinking spree continued into the night.
In the early hours of the next morning, Mupande and her accuser left together for their respective homes but they didn’t get far, Tshabalala told the court.
“As they walked on a footpath through the woods, the victim decided he was too drunk to continue walking and sat down before falling asleep,” Tshabalala said.
Prosecutors allege that Mupande then pulled down her accuser’s trousers and underpants before going on to sexually violate him. The man was too drunk to stop the attack, allege prosecutors.
When the man woke up at sunrise, according to the State, he noticed that his trousers and pants were at knee level. Mupande was sleeping next to him, but her knickers some metres away.
“When he asked her what had happened, Mupande told him that they had been intimate and that he had consented,” said Tshabalala.
The man reported the alleged attack to a female member of the local Neighbourhood Watch Committee who called in the police.