A Zimbabwean pastor sentenced to 50 years imprisonment for raping some female members of his congregation

A Zimbabwean pastor, Robert Martin Gumbura, the founder of ‘Robert Martin Gumbura Independent End Time Message Church’ was sentenced on Monday to 50 years imprisonment for raping four female members of his congregation and threatening to cast evil spells on them if they exposed him.

During the court hearing, the 57-year-old Pastor who already has 11 wives and 30 children, claimed that all female members of his church were his wives by right, and the married women were on loan from their husbands. Presiding over the matter, magistrate Hoseah Mujaya said, “You were a real wolf in sheepskin. The core business of any church is worshipping and not sleeping with girls and women and threaten them that misfortune will befall them.” His conviction included a four-month term for a separate charge of possession of pornographic videos. In his defence, Gumbura stated the DVDs were private recordings with his wives. However, 10-years was taken off his sentence because he had no previous convictions