Its a common belief that the majority of child sexual abuse is done by strangers. The offender however is usually someone they know and trust – a father, stepfather, the mom’s boyfriend, grandfather, brother, or uncle. Child abuse statistics show that 46 percent of childhood victims are raped by someone in their family.
A 65-year-old traditional healer from Zimbabwe impregnated three teenagers from the village including his own daughter for whom he paid Z$80 billion bride price.
According to the source, angry villagers on 18 February, 2014 converged at headman Man Nkala’s homestead demanding the arrest of Killion Moyo, describing him as a “sex predator” from whom their children were not safe.
Nkala said the issue was reported to Esigodini police.
Moyo fathered two children aged four and three with his daughter. He warned he would send lightning to strike anyone asking about his relationships.
A villager said: “We are afraid of Moyo because he always threatens to strike people with lightning. He has been involved in a string of child abuse and rape cases for many years.”
A neighbour’s daughter also has Moyo’s children aged eight and five while another girl who reportedly fled to neighbouring South Africa, has a three-year-old child with the traditional healer.
Moyo confessed to a Chronicle news crew that he had been sleeping with his daughter since 2003 when she was in Grade Seven, alleging it was a way of appeasing the spirit of his late wife.
Further, he stunned villagers alleging that he had paid Z$80 billion lobola (bride price) to his daughter’s grandmother. He also confessed that he has been sleeping with two other young girls from the village.
One of the victims aged 23, told Chronicle that she was in Grade Seven when she was told by her parents that she was going to stay with Moyo because he was now responsible for paying her fees.
She said Moyo did not send her to school but started involving her in his rituals.
“Moyo gave me a separate room but at night he would sneak into my blankets and tell me that I was a wife of the spirits.
“Wangitshela ukuthi ngingumfazi wamadlozi. He took my v*rginity raping me until I fell pregnant at the age of 14. He threatened me with lightning if I tried to escape. As it is, I have two children with him and he does not take care of them,” said the victim, who has since fled back to her parents.
Her father Lazarus Dube said Moyo tricked him into allowing him to marry his under-age daughter by promising him sweet potatoes and cattle.
“He never brought the cattle or the sweet potatoes,” said Dube.
Moyo told Chronicle that the spirit of his late wife Joyce Mpofu ordered him to marry their daughter. His wife died in 1990.
“My wife worked with me during my rituals. Wayephatha inkezo. After her death she tormented me through dreams, asking me to look for a woman belonging to the family who was going to take her role,” said Moyo, displaying a toothless grin.
“I discussed with my mother-in-law, Petheni Moyo-Bhebhe asking her to give me a wife from her family so that I could solve my problems. She agreed to replace Joyce with my daughter, now 23-years-old.”
Moyo said he took his daughter to his shrine, which he calls Elitsheni and introduced her to the ancestors who approved their marriage.
He added: “I paid my mother-in-law Z$80 billion lobola. She refused to inform other relatives about the issue. I then started sleeping with her.”
Chronicle caught up with Moyo-Bhebhe who denied facilitating the marriage.
“I was staying with (her grand daughter) before she went to stay with her father after writing her Grade Seven examinations. Her father promised to take her to school.
“After two years I heard that she was now pregnant. I went to the homestead to ask who was responsible for the pregnancy.
“When I arrived Moyo fled from the homestead while she told me that a village boy was responsible for the pregnancy,” said Moyo-Bhebhe.
She said when she heard rumours about the incestuous relationship; she questioned her granddaughter who accused her of being jealous.
“I decided to leave them alone and I was surprised when she fell pregnant again the following year. In 2012 she came to my home with her children and wanted to leave them with me. “She told me that she had realised that everything was wrong and she could not bear her sins but I chased her away and told her to leave the children with their father.
