Zimbabweans break record of raping animals…Ritual or moral decay?

…Goats, donkeys and chickens being the most victims

A DARK cloud has settled over villages and townships across Zimbabwe as shocking cases of men caught bedding goats, donkeys and even chickens continue to rock communities and reignite a bizarre online debate about whether such people are mentally sick, spiritually cursed, or simply rotten to the core.

In Figtree, 33-year-old Brighton Mnkandla was jailed for six months after raping goats belonging to his neighbours, with two dying in the process. In Masvingo, Milton Ngwenya’s picture went viral after he was caught with a dead goat he allegedly violated. And in Piki Village near Mutare, 19-year-old Carrington Mutasa made headlines for forcing himself on a chicken. The horror stories have sparked outrage, ridicule and deep cultural unease, not to mention a flood of social media jokes about “goat weddings” and “animal lobola.”

But behind the viral memes and moral outrage, serious questions remain. Is this madness, witchcraft, or moral decay? B-Metro went digging and found a tangled web of psychology, culture, and shame.

Dr Wellington Ranga, a psychiatrist at Ingutsheni Central Hospital, dismissed the idea that bestiality is caused by mental illness. “Sleeping with an animal is a moral choice, not a mental disorder,” he said. “In formal psychology, bestiality is not classified as a mental condition like depression. It’s a question of moral judgment, what one chooses to do when no one is watching.”

Dr Ranga added that while such extreme behaviour may point to some psychological or emotional dysfunction, it is not an officially recognised disorder. “The problem lies in the person’s moral compass. The law should deal with such people, because society must protect itself from moral corruption.”

From the pulpit, the condemnation is brutal. Bishop Prophet Dr B S Chiza of Eagle Life Assembly thundered: “This is a gross violation of God’s law. Leviticus 18:23 is clear, you must not defile yourself with an animal. It is perversion.”

Traditional healer Mhabinyana was equally fierce. “This is witchcraft, not culture. No Ndebele tradition allows it,” he said. “In most cases the person is being used by dark spirits. But if they willingly do it, it’s moral decay of the highest order.”

Long before prisons and psychiatrists, chiefs had their own ways of dealing with such abominations. The President of the Chiefs Council, Chief Mtshane Khumalo, told B-Metro that in the old days, offenders were exiled to a forbidden place called Intabazabathakathi, now part of modern-day Sizinda in Bulawayo. “People who committed such acts were chased away to cleanse the community. They were seen as spiritually dirty. No one wanted to live near them,” he said.

Chief Ndondo of Matabeleland South added that no one ever “married” an animal as some social media users joked. “People confuse compensation with lobola. The offender had to pay the owner for the animal and the beast was then killed, never eaten, to purify the land.”

He fumed: “How can a man lust after a goat when women are everywhere? This is an embarrassment to our culture.”

On social media, outrage mixed with disbelief. “Now goats are getting married before us,” wrote Girlie Sibanda on Facebook. Mano Charlton Ntungakwa chipped in with: “I wonder how the goats feel after the arrest of their rapist”.

Michael Mngutshini, another Facebooker, could not hold his anger: “We need meat, and some people are making it dirty!”

Something is rotting in society’s moral fibre. Whether the cause is witchcraft, warped desire or simple depravity, communities are demanding a return to old discipline.

“Maybe,” said Chief Mathema, “it’s time we bring back exile for such people. Prison alone is not enough to cleanse a soul that sleeps with a beast.”

It seems the question isn’t just who’s to blame, but how far Zimbabwe has fallen from the days when moral law ruled stronger than lust. Herald