" Have Sex With a Lizard or Die " Man Threatens Ex -Girlfriend

Have Sex With a Lizard or Die!

…Chitungwiza Man Jailed 20 Years for Rape in Case Involving Witchcraft Claims

By Delicious Mathuthu

Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe - A 25-year-old Chitungwiza man, Justice Tatenda Charamba, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of raping his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend.

The Chitungwiza Magistrates' Court heard harrowing details of how he used alleged witchcraft rituals to coerce his victim over several months, with the abuse beginning as far back as 2023.

In a statement published on Monday, September 8, the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe detailed the man’s elaborate plot, which began with a prior sexual encounter.

Initial police investigations after his arrest revealed that in 2023, after their first time having protected sex, Charamba allegedly kept the condom wrapped in a red cloth, claiming it had been smeared with "juju" by a sangoma.

The red cloth had their names inscribed l, and he used it to threaten the woman, claiming she was not supposed to get married elsewhere and that her marriage would collapse if she slept with another man besides him.

The coercion intensified in February 2025, despite them having separated.

"The offender contacted his ex-girlfriend, a 23-year-old woman, claiming to have used [the] condom from their past sexual encounter for a ritual that would harm her future."

The court heard how he insisted the ritual could only be undone by a specific act, threatening that she, her parents and her new boyfriend would die if she didn't comply.

Driven by fear for her family’s safety, the victim reluctantly agreed to the accused's demands and was persuaded to accompany him to a dam.

On March 19, 2025, at around 2 PM, the court heard that the two went to Leisure Centre Dam, where Charamba was seen holding a bottle containing the used condom, a live snake, a bird feather and the red piece of cloth with their names on it.

He allegedly threw the bottle into the dam and the two parted ways.

Two days later, on March 21, Charamba returned, claiming a mistake had been made.

He informed her that a certain sangoma had told him that they had wrongly performed the cleansing process, and that she was the one who was supposed to have thrown the bottle.

To rectify the process, he presented her with a grotesque choice: "have sex with him or with a lizard which he had in his bag."

The victim chose the latter, and the accused handed her the lizard which was in a container.

Determined in his mission in-spite of the lizard choice, the next day on March 22, the accused called and pressured the victim, claiming his sangoma insisted she must have sexual intercourse with him, and she agreed out of fear and had protected sex.

The abuse continued in the following months, with Charamba abusing the woman on different days and places, including a bushy area.

He even collected her panties and burnt them along with the used condoms as part of his claimed sangoma rituals.

In April, Charamba told the woman that his sangoma had claimed people had seen them burning the items, and the ritual had not worked.

He then demanded more sexual encounters from June 10 to June 30, 2025.

The long-running ordeal finally came to a head when the victim confided in a friend on May 31, who took her to a pastor on June 4.

The pastor advised her to file a report with the police, leading to Charamba’s arrest, court trial and subsequent conviction.