Gwanda town is engulfed in a wave of confusion as a mentally ill women living on the streets of the town for the last two years has fallen pregnant.
The mentally challenged woman “staying” on the pavement in front of now closed Gwanda Branch of Minister Obert Mpofu owned Allied Bank, is at an advanced staged of pregnancy which could be in its 7th or 8th month, leaving the community confused as to who would have fathered the woman’s baby. The woman known to the Gwanda Community as MaSibanda, has been spending her days and nights in the public area around the bank which has a busy filling station, a public bar which closes very late and a 24 hour restaurant.
When Zimeye News crew approached MaSibanda who speaks with a heavy Zulu accent to enquire about her pregnancy, the somewhat very kind and polite woman could only smile and say she was impregnated by her “sweetheart”. Asked who the “sweetheart” was the woman only laughed and told the news crew that “he will be back shortly he has gone to buy food and beer at the tavern”.
Trying to pursue the matter further, the news crew interviewed the bank’s security personnel who guard the bank on a 24 hour basis and are positioned hardly 10 meters away from where MaSibanda “lives”. The officer on duty would not cooperate with the news crew telling the crew to get away claiming that the news crew was accusing them of “sleeping with a mad woman.” When the crew persisted, the security guard threatened to beat up the reporter if he continued asking him what he called “stupid questions.’
In snap interviews of members of the public passing around the area, the people interviewed expressed anger at the man who may have made the woman pregnant calling on the police to follow up the matter as anyone who may have had sexual intercourse with the woman is tantamount to have raped the woman. Several of those interviewed queried how the woman would have been raped in full view of the security details who spend 24 hours a few meters away from the woman.
“My brother, ask the security guys at the bank they know better about that woman than all of us here,” said a young man drinking beer at the near by pub. “There is no way anyone would have slept with that woman and the security fail to see it she is always there next to them,” added the young man.
Asked for a comment a lady who trades airtime along the same corridor where MaSibanda “stays” said that she was also shocked when she realised that the woman was pregnant and described it as being barbaric of the man who may have slept with the woman.
“We have been with this lady here for more than two years now she is a very kind woman, never violent and always tries to clean herself and her surrounding. I suspect someone took advantage of her being kind yet vulnerable and slept with her. Its very bad for men to do this. I wish the person responsible could be arrested for this barbaric act,” she said.
Another vendor who also operates from the same street vividly threw the blame on people drinking beer at the near by pub. The vendor who claims to be at the corridors for about 14 hours a day said that she always see men from the bar serving the woman food and drink and says the woman frequently walks from her area to the pub to beg for food and drink and that’s where she may have been taken advantage of according to her.
“I am 100% sure she was impregnated by the merciless drunkards from the pub. I have seen a lot of them give her beer and food especially at night and I am confident they may have slept with her in her drunken state,” she said before also calling on the police to investigate the matter.
No comment could immediately be obtained from the police in Gwanda or the department of Social Welfare on how the woman would be assisted. Zimeye will keep a close eye on the matter.