AN eSikhaleni pastor who threatened his 12-year-old victim with a gun and raped her, was found guilty of multiple rape charges in the eSikhawini Regional Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
Reverend Phangumusa Mtungwa (63) of the Rock of Life Church in Nhlangenyuke area near Mtunzini, was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment on five counts of rape. He will effectively serve 30 years behind bars.
Mtungwa was charged in 2010 for sexually assaulting a young woman after the complainant opened a case at the eSikhawini police station.
She told the court that the pastor repeatedly raped her in 1998, 1999 and 2003 when she stayed with him in his house.
‘(The first time) he came to the room and produced a gun and then raped me. Afterwards he told me not to say anything or he would kill me. I was just 12 years old and was very scared,’ the complainant testified.
She said the second rape occurred two weeks later, and that it continued when she was 13 in 1999.
In 2003 after a fifth rape incident at a sugarcane loading zone, the victim reported the rapes to her boyfriend and father, who then confronted the pastor.
According to the father, the Reverend offered to pay anything to prevent the matter being reported to the police.
In 2010, when the victim was 25 years old and a student at the University of Zululand, she decided to lay charges.
During the trial, Mtungwa first denied the charges, but later confessed to having consensual sex with the victim and that she had made sexual advances towards him.
Mtungwa received a 20-year imprisonment sentence on charges one and two, another 20 years on counts three and four, with 10 years added on count five.
This reverend is sending two wrong msssages to the public.One he hides his sins with the Bibel may be he is of the opinion that all sins are forgiven.A Myth.Secondly is that some men never become real men no matter what.
To think I really knew the men all these years, trusted him as a man of God. I thank God that he had hidden me in his love and never became his victim. This all goes to show that you do not mock God.
Just disgusting, a man of God doing such things to children,…….just disgusting