A 29-year old controversial lesbian cleric from Gweru who was slapped with a 11-year jail term for molesting a female congregant from her chapel hs told the court that she is pregnant and also living on HIV medication.
The incarcerated Juliet Masakanire who founded Pray, Deliverance and Testimony Ministries made the remarks while pleading for a lighter sentence from Gweru magistrate Pathekile Msipa. Masakanire further revealed that apart from her three-month pregnancy and HIV status, she also has two of her biological children to look after.
Despite pleading not guilty to charges of molesting a 32-year old female congregant she had offered a place to stay, the controversial cleric was convicted and slapped with an 11-year jail term. The cleric will now spend nine years behind bars after two years were suspended on condition of good behaviour.
She fruitlessly pleaded for lenience from the presiding magistrate.
“I am three months pregnant, l have two minor kids at home plus ndinomwa mapiritsi saka dai dare rarega kundiendesa kujeri (I am also on ART so I plead that I be not sent to jail)“, Masakanire begged.
In her justification of the sentence, the magistrate said as a cleric, Masakanire should have protected the complainant who was looking up to her as her shepherdess.
According to the magistrate, the sexually abused congregant trusted trusted Masakanire and thus, believed in her prophecies.
Sometime in February this year Masakanire prophesied to the complainant that she was going to get married to a man called Stanley Chinyonga.
Each night since the day of the prophecy, Masakanire started to speak to the complainant in a male voice saying she was Stanley Chinyonga and wanted to marry her.
The court heard that on two different occasions Masakanire woke up during the night and pretended to be Stanley before kissing and caressing the complainant.
One day she even inserted her fingers into the complainant’s private parts. She threatened the complainant against telling anyone. She said that the prophesy will not come true if the complainant told anyone about the abuses.
mirror
additional reporting: Zwnews
