Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Harare, Zimbabwe · 2014

Zimbabwe: church founder convicted of raping four congregants he threatened with evil spells

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

founder and leader of the RMG Independent End Time Message Church

Organization

RMG Independent End Time Message Church

Spiritual nexus

Women of his own church, held in place by his claimed power to curse them.

  • Threatened spiritual consequence
  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2014-02-03 · conviction; sentence reduced on appeal, conviction upheld

    Harare Regional Court; High Court of Zimbabwe (appeal). Robert Martin Gumbura, founder of the RMG Independent End Time Message Church, was convicted on 3 February 2014 of raping four female congregants whom he had threatened with evil spells, and sentenced to fifty years with ten suspended. In August 2020 the High Court reduced the sentence to twenty-five years with five suspended while upholding the conviction. He died in Chikurubi prison on 7 August 2021.

Appellate history

  1. 2020-08 · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • threats of evil spells against women who refused or disclosed
  • total doctrinal authority over the congregation

Primary record

Sources

official court judgment appellate judgment Gumbura v S, SC 78-14 (Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, 2014) via ZimLII.

Court record from the national legal-information institute.

national newspaper court reporting appellate outcome report ZimLive: High Court reduces the sentence, August 2020.

Reports the appellate outcome.

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