/ 13 June 1997

Banana to face nine rape charges

FRIDAY, 3.00PM

FORMER Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana is to be charged with at least nine counts of homosexual rape, the daily Herald newspaper reported on Friday.

The newspaper was quoting acting police chief Philip Mhike, who said the charges arose out of information volunteered by complainants during police investigations into allegations by Banana’s former aide-de-camp Jephta Dube.

Dube made the allegations during his trial for the murder of a police colleague. He said he killed the man in a fit of rage after the called him “Banana’s wife”. Dube claimed that sustained sexual abuse while he worked for Banana had led him to alcoholism and had destroyed his life.

Following Dube’s claims, several men, including Banana’s former students, soldiers and players in Banana’s State House football team, came forward with similar allegations.

Homosexual acts, even between consenting adults, are illegal in Zimbabwe.

Banana, 61, was appointed to the presidency by the then prime minister Robert Mugabe in 1980 and held the post until 1987 when Mugabe became executive president.