Vongai Masuka

Ashley Masendeke, popularly known as Mai Jeremiah told reporters today that she knew she could not prove her case, but went through court processes to see if she was “strong enough”.

She said this after losing her case to Thabo Blessing Dube and Martin Charlie, whom she accused of raping her. The two were acquitted by Harare Magistrate Letwin Rwodzi, who ruled that the complainant was an active consenting participant in a paid sexual encounter.

In her statement after the court, Mai Jeremiah revealed that she wanted to to see if she was strong enough.

“I’m numb, it was a good process. Everything I felt before reporting is what happened bebecauseWhen this happened to me, I knew I could not prove it and I just had to go through it. This is me today. It doesn’t matter, it happened to me and this is the verdict and there is nothing I can do. I knew already, but I wanted to see if I was strong enough to go through the whole process,”.

“It doesnt have to stop anybody to say something about something of this sort because I’m a married woman, I had so many reasons to hide this from everybody but I managed to follow through to the end and it’s okay,” she said.

The accused’s lawyer, Shepherd Makonde said there was no sufficient evidence to prove that the accused are guilty.

“After their court heard everything from both parties, it was said that there was no sufficient evidence to prove the accusations.

My clients have been acquitted.” He said.