HARARE – A ZBC radio DJ broke down in court on Thursday as she recounted how she was raped by self-proclaimed prophet Tapiwa Freddy of the Goodness and Mercy Ministries.
The 33-year-old claimed Freddy shouted “thank you sir” during the attack at her home on a date in November 2020.
Freddy, 38, denies the allegations.
Hours before the attack, the widowed woman said the married Freddy drove her to his rural home in Chiendambuya and then to Harare.
The court heard the preacher asked to pray for the woman’s son, claiming evil spirits haunted the boy.
Freddy also prayed for his entire family before returning to Harare.
She had started talking to Freddy after contacting him in November 2019 to pray for her sick husband. Freddy, the court heard, paid the wife’s husband’s medical bills after he was admitted to Karanda Mission Hospital.
He died weeks later, and Freddy provided financial assistance at the funeral.
A few months later, the woman told the court that Freddy had started courting her, complimenting her good looks and promising to take care of her and her son.
She told Freddy it was taboo in Shona culture to date another man until a year had passed after her husband’s death, the court heard.
The woman testifies: “In January (2020) I went to thank the defendant for his support during my husband’s illness and after his death.
A month later, he started calling and said, “Madam, you are radiant. Inini moyo wangu waperera pauri sekufirwa kwawaita ndokwanisa kukuchengeta (My heart longs for you. With the loss you have just experienced, I can take care of you).
“I told him it was taboo and he seemed to understand. But in October he said he was afraid other men would catch me. He said, ‘I want to take care of you and your child'”.
This led to the November 2020 date when they returned home to Mt. Pleasant Heights after 7 p.m.
Freddy, she said, helped her carry bags inside. She thought he was gone as she headed to the bathroom to freshen up.
“While I was in the bathroom, I heard him come into the house, but I didn’t know which room he was going to,” she said. “I came out of the toilet and went into the bedroom and found him lying on the bed. He had taken his shoes off and there was a gun in one of the shoes.
“I then sat down in a chair and asked him why he was on my bed. The defendant called my name and asked me why I was ‘making life impossible’. He quoted a Bible verse which said that my late husband wouldn’t know because he was dead.
“He said he was not comfortable with the belt and took it off. Then he got up and locked the door before throwing the keys under the bed. He told me to accept it like my husband from that day forward.
After stripping, the one-armed woman said Freddy “held me with his mighty hands and I couldn’t fight him”.
“He threw me on the bed…He held me down with his belly while he was on top of me and told me not to refuse the anointing he was going to give me,” he said. she declared.
The court heard Freddy say “Thank you sir” as he raped her.
Freddy, she testified, told her of other women who died because they “refused the anointing” or because they told other people they had been raped.
Freddy would have used an example of the founder of Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries, Walter Magaya, whose alleged girlfriend died in Botswana.
The woman recalls: “He said, ‘Our gods are different, mine is a murderer’.”
The woman told the court that Freddy also told her he could ask ZBC to fire her because he was on good books with his boss.
Freddy denies the allegations, saying they had consensual sex and she only reported him for rape after he called Time about their affair and tried to extort money from him .
The trial process continues.
- RosGwen24 News/ additional report by Kukurigo Updates
