Moyo rape accuser once accused Obert Mpofu, Walter Mzembi, Francis Nhema of sexual assault

Former cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo on Monday pushed back against “false and outrageous” allegations that he raped a former model and beauty pageant organiser over a decade ago, zim live reports.

State media reported claims by Sipho Mazibuko who said she was “sexually abused” by Moyo but was “too scared to even report or tell anyone until that fateful day 11 years ago when I went and told the police at Bulawayo Central Police Station.”

According to the publication, Mazibuko has previously alleged some form of sexual abuse by up to half-a-dozen cabinet ministers, government officials and businessmen.

She claimed that “nothing was done to investigate my case” and “till today my docket died a natural death.”

Police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi on Monday said he was not aware Moyo had been investigated over “sexual abuse”. “Now we are checking with Bulawayo to find out if there was such a report,” he said.

Moyo, now living in exile in Kenya, claimed the allegations were a hatchet job by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime which is desperate to silence him on Twitter, where he has become a vocal opponent of his former cabinet colleague who seized power with the help of the military.

The former minister said he was being goaded by a Twitter account called ‘FriendsOfEDMnangagwa’ (@FriendsED), claiming this was proof there was “Mnangagwa’s dirty hands in this.”

Mazibuko was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2011 when she caused a scene at the Bulawayo Central Police Station. She went there with a list of men she claimed had sexually assaulted her, but police got concerned with her erratic behaviour.

The list included Moyo, former ministers Obert Mpofu, Walter Mzembi and Francis Nhema as well as the then Zimbabwe Tourism Authority boss Karikoga Kaseke, who called her “mad”. The allegations remain unproven.

Mazibuko stripped at the police station and demanded that she be provided “five male virgins” to celebrate her birthday, according to one reporter who was present at the time.

Police took her to Ingutsheni Hospital in Bulawayo where she was given the bipolar diagnosis. Some of the symptoms exhibited by bipolar patients include delusion, anger, aggression, depression, self-harm and excess desire for sex.

The Miss Rural pageant founder previously admitted attempting to commit suicide and blamed her divorce from lawyer Ndabezinhle Mazibuko for her breakdown.

zim live