SMILING nervously, Thulani Ngwenya, 24, lumbers onto a prison truck surrounded by half a dozen prison officers.
Our web exclusive pictures put a face to the man who has been charged with aiding and abetting close to two dozen sex attacks on male hitch-hikers by three female suspects.
Ngwenya’s girlfriend Sophie Tendai Nhokwa, 26, her younger sister Netsai Monica Nhokwara, 24, and Rosemary Chakwizira, 28, are due back in court on Friday for a routine remand hearing after being charged with 17 counts of aggravated assault on October 15.
It was Ngwenya’s arrest on October 9, after he ran over and killed a pedestrian, which yielded the breakthrough on a two-year police probe into random attacks on male hitch-hikers by females, purportedly to steal their semen for use in ritual practices.
Ngwenya, of Gweru, was driving in a car registered to his girlfriend when the accident occurred along the Gweru-Lower Gweru road.
Police arrived at the scene shortly after the accident, and the three women later turned up seeking to retrieve from the vehicle what prosecutors say was “valuable loot” – 31 used condoms including four which were filled with semen. They were located in the boot of the vehicle inside a plastic bag.
Prosecutors say the three women, along with Ngwenya, were picked by 17 male victims during an identity parade in Harare.
Not only is Ngwenya charged in connection with the sex attacks, but he also faces culpable homicide charges over the accident.
Prosecutors hope he will agree to spill the beans on the women’s bizarre operation in exchange for a shorter sentence.
Sperm collectors ... The three women charged over sex attacks on male hitch-hikers
The gang's alleged 17 victims identified so far include a soldier and a police officer. The victims are all aged between 19 and 35.
One, a 19-year-old man, flagged down a suspect vehicle in Budiriro, Harare, for a lift into town.
Prosecutors say he was sprayed in the face with an unknown substance and he felt dizzy. He was driven into the woods along Mukuvisi River, behind Houghton Park, where he was forced to drink a concoction which stimulates sexual desire.
He was ordered to be intimate with the women who collected the condom containing his semen. Following the attack, prosecutors say, he was sprayed again with the mystery chemical and left dazed.
In some cases, investigators say the men were forced to comply at gunpoint.
James Sabau, a spokesman for Harare police, said: “We are still trying to figure out why semen was collected. Information we have gathered so far links the entire female rapist issue to rituals that make people rich. It is, however, still unclear how the supposed rituals work.”
All four suspects are yet to formally enter their pleas.