The second suspect accused of raping a 41- year-old South African woman when she was on a visit in Zimbabwe on August 20, reappeared in court on Tuesday.

Tawanda Guzha (27) of the Chivhu area near Harare pleaded not guilty to rape charges when he appeared before Regional Magistrate Owen Tagu. He was remanded in custody to 29 November for judgment.

Initially, the case was remanded to November 14 for trial.

The court heard that Guzha and his accomplice, Innocent Gumbo (34), had offered the woman a lift along the Beitbridge-Bulawayo Highway in Zimbabwe on 20 August.

The court was told that the victim was traveling with a female relative driving from Bulawayo, where they had visited their in-laws and were on their way back to South Africa. Along the way, their car developed a puncture and she then boarded another car and went to Beitbridge town to have the tyre fixed.

On returning to the point where the car had been left, she got a lift from the accused persons. The accused persons’ vehicle had four people on board, two of them women.

After traveling for about 10km, the driver then dropped off the other two female passengers and proceeded with the South African woman and the other male passenger.

The driver then traveled another 5km before branching off the highway and parking the car in a bushy area under the guise of intending to refuel it.

However, soon after parking the car, the driver together with the passenger ordered the complainant to disembark. They then robbed her of her cell phone, R115 and Z$8.5 million.

The two suspects then ordered her to remove her G-string, after which they took turns to rape her before tying her to a tree using her G-string. They then sped off at high speed, leaving their victim stranded.

The woman, however, managed to untie herself and got a lift from a Good Samaritan who then took her to Beitbridge Police Station where she reported the matter.

The two accused were arrested separately in the Masvingo and Garanyemba areas in Zimbabwe, following public tip-off.

Gumbo was sentenced to an effective 15 years in jail for the offence last month.