Near-retirement teacher jailed 18 years for raping special needs pupil

BULAWAYO – A near-retirement teacher has been jailed for 18 years after being convicted of raping his 13-year-old pupil, who had an intellectual disability, in a case the Bulawayo High Court found involved a serious abuse of trust and exploitation of the child’s vulnerability.

Clever Mutero, who was 62 when the offences were committed and 63 by the time of sentencing, taught the girl at a primary school in Redcliff, where he was responsible for a special class for learners with disabilities.

He was convicted of two counts of rape and sentenced to 18 years on each count, with the sentences running concurrently.

The case centred on allegations that Mutero used his position as the girl’s teacher to gain access to her before sexually assaulting her on two occasions.

The court heard that before the sexual assaults, Mutero had sent the girl on errands and, on one occasion, picked her up at Torwood Shopping Centre, drove her to his house and took her into an empty room.

The High Court noted that Mutero never disputed this part of the girl’s account.

The first rape was alleged to have occurred during the first term of 2024 after Mutero called the girl into a classroom while she was at school. According to her evidence, he separated her from another child before he sexually assaulted her.

Afterwards, she reported the incident to another teacher.

The second assault was alleged to have occurred during the third term of 2025, after the girl had completed one of her Grade 7 examinations.

Mutero allegedly called her into the staffroom, locked the door and drew the curtains before repeating the assault.

The girl subsequently told friends, who accompanied her to the same teacher she confided in earlier.

She later disclosed the abuse to her maternal aunt after developing vaginal thrush. She was taken to Kwekwe General Hospital, where a medical examination found a ruptured hymen and definite penetration.

Mutero denied the allegations, arguing that the girl’s evidence was unreliable and that the staffroom was normally too busy for the second rape to have happened.

But the High Court rejected his defence, finding that the girl had given a coherent and consistent account despite her intellectual disability.

The judges also noted that she had repeated the essential details of the abuse to several people, including her friends, maternal aunt and a psychiatrist.

Justice Mpokiseng Dube, sitting with Justice Vivian Ndlovu, said the girl’s repeated account “strengthens credibility and reduces the likelihood of fabrication.”
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The judges further rejected Mutero’s argument that the staffroom was too busy for the rape to have occurred, noting that defence witnesses could not establish that anyone was actually in the room at the specific time of the assault.

The court said the trial magistrate had been entitled to accept the girl’s evidence that the room was empty and that Mutero locked the door and drew the curtains.

“We all know that having sex does not require a lot of time… A chance may just present itself,” the trial magistrate had observed.

The High Court was particularly critical of the circumstances surrounding Mutero’s relationship with the child.

In upholding the sentence, Dube said Mutero had “acted in loco parentis” and knew that the girl was vulnerable because she was his pupil with special needs.

The court also found that he had groomed her before the offences by sending her on errands, driving her in his car and taking her to his home.

Although Mutero was a first offender, had served at the school for many years without blemish, was approaching retirement and had lost his job because of the case, the High Court found that the aggravating circumstances justified the sentence.

Mutero had appealed both his conviction and sentence, asking to be acquitted or, alternatively, for his sentence to be reduced to seven years.

The High Court rejected every ground of appeal.

“The appeal therefore lacks merit in its entirety and is accordingly dismissed,” Dube ruled, with Ndlovu concurring.

Mutero’s effective 18-year prison sentence therefore stands.