A 47-year-old taxi driver from Mabvuku recently appeared before a magistrate on allegations of raping and infecting his minor daughter with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) five years ago.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the minor, told magistrate Estere Chivasa that the rape charges were fabricated by his estranged wife after a dispute over the child’s custody.
The man allegedly raped the minor in 2015 when she was aged 12, and then again in 2019 after she was left in his custody by her grandmother.
Following the rape incident in 2019, the minor reportedly told her aunt who, however, concealed the matter.
On May 9, 2020, she developed warts on her privates and told her aunt who she was now living with as she wanted to seek medical help, leading to the arrest of the accused.