A brave 99-year-old granny from Muleya Village outside Beit Bridge summoned all her strength to wrestle with a 17-year-old rapist for several minutes, until she was finally overpowered and raped once.

The granny was left bleeding, and she had bruises on her knees, arms and the back of her head. The incident left the local community shell-shocked after the allegations that the teenager had raped the granny surfaced recently.

The teenager, a resident of Chiradza Village, was set to appear in court last week, but the case was postponed to a later date. According to the local prosecutor, Mr Panganayi Chiutsi, the youth raped the victim after he had pounced on her while she was bathing.

Meanwhile, a 16-year-old youth from Fula village outside Beit Bridge, who had raped a local 15-year-old, was sentenced to moderate corporal punishment of six strokes with a cane.

It was testified that on 16 December last year, the complainant was looking for donkeys at a bushy area when she came across the accused. The accused then offered to assist the girl. They went off together, and along the way the accused dragged the victim into a nearby thick forest where he forcibly pinned her down and raped her once. Soon after committing the offence, the boy fled from the scene, leaving the victim crying.

The girl, however, later went home and reported the matter to her mother, who in turn made a police report, leading to the arrest of the boy.