Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe · 2003

Zimbabwe: apostolic shrine leader convicted on seven counts of raping women who came for spiritual help

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

leader of the Johanne Masowe weChishanu shrine at Juranifiri Santa, Chitungwiza

Organization

Johanne Masowe weChishanu (Juranifiri Santa shrine)

Spiritual nexus

Women who walked into a shrine for spiritual help and met the man whose authority the shrine was built on.

  • Spiritual healing or treatment
  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2003-01-01 · conviction; sentence reduced on appeal; later pardoned

    Zimbabwean courts. Madzibaba Godfrey Nzira, leader of the Johanne Masowe weChishanu shrine at Juranifiri Santa in Chitungwiza, was convicted in 2003 on seven counts of rape and on indecent assault against women who had come to his shrine seeking spiritual help, and sentenced to thirty-two years, reduced to twenty on appeal with the conviction standing. He was pardoned by presidential clemency in January 2011 — a commutation, not a vacatur — and died in October 2011.

Appellate history

  1. Date in cited record · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • women seeking spiritual help and healing at his shrine

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting conviction history report The Zimbabwean: obituary recounting the conviction, appeal and pardon.

National outlet's case history.

Related record

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