Masvingo senior passports officer Chimbombe cleared of rape

TellZim Reporter

MASVINGO – The Magistrates’s Court recently cleared the accounting
officer in the Masvingo provincial Registrar General (RG)’s office, Julius
Chimombe of raping and indecently assaulting a subordinate.

Magistrate Dambudzo Malunga acquitted
Chimombe after the State and complainant failed to convince the court that the
alleged offences were indeed committed.

The complainant in the case was
Listen Tauyanago, a processing officer who also worked at the Masvingo passport
office but has since been transferred to Mashava.

Tauyanago (37) alleged that
Chimombe raped and indecently touched her on two separate occasions back in
2017.

At the close of the trial, the
State – which was led by Liberty Hove – had failed to furnish the court with
actual dates on which the alleged rape and act of indecent assult took place.

The State had called many people
who work at the passport office, including registrar Lazarus Mahuni to testify as
witnesses.

The State had claimed that
Tauyanago failed to report the case on time fearing for her job and the
collapse of her marriage.

Some sources privy to the case,
however, said the case was a hatchet job emanating from acrimonious work-place politics
and petty jealousy.

Chimombe was represented by
Charles Ndlovu of Ndlovu and Hwacha.