Simbarashe Chadiwa was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping a 10-year-old girl in 2014.
The “victim,” now 18, reportedly admitted to lying against Chadiwa after a string of misfortunes befell her and her family.
“That man never raped me but I was under so much pressure that I ended up wrongly implicating him. That action has been haunting me daily such that I can no longer live with the fact that there is someone out there who is suffering for a crime that he never committed in the first place.
A lot of misfortunes are also happening at our home, which makes me suspect it has to do with the grief on the part of Simbarashe, hence my decision to come clean.” She said.
Tapiwa Chadiwa, the serving inmate’s brother, said Simbarashe literally broke down when they arrived at Harare Central Prison with the good news last weekend.
“He could not hold a discussion with us, he was simply drowned in tears. The fact that it has taken this long to finally have justice prevail was overwhelming for him. We were all so emotional we could not go into a decent talk to chart the way forward.” Chadiwa said.
It was gathered that Simbarashe and his friend visited the girl’s homestead, where the latter intended to see the family maid, who was his lover.
The girl’s mother was away in Botswana, however, when the mother returned, she queried why her daughter seemed to be having a limp in her walk.
This led to the chain of events that ended with Chadiwa’s conviction.
