A 27-year-old woman yesterday narrated in court how a Lusaka pastor she had known since her high school days attempted to rape her at a prayer house in January this year.
Before Lusaka magistrate Albert Mwaba was Golden Malama, a pastor accused of attempted rape.
In her testimony, the woman said she had known Malama, who pastors at Father’s House Church in Lusaka’s Chunga area since their high school days at Lubwe Mission in Samfya and that he was one of their prefects at the school.
The woman said after school, she did not meet Malama for about 10 years but that on January 29, he followed her to Spar Chawama where she was working and informed her that he was now a pastor.
She said Malama asked her if he could meet her family and she agreed to the request and they planned that he would go to meet her husband and child the following day.
“They were the two of them and I was confident because he said he was a pastor. I told him I would knock off around 15:00 the following day and they could meet my family,” the woman narrated as Malama sat in the accused dock. “The next day, he came alone to pick me up [from work] and asked me to accompany him to Levy Mall. I agreed but I did not call my husband to tell him we were going there. After that, he asked me to go with him to Woodlands prayer house. I refused but he said it would only be for a short time, so I accepted. Again I did not call my husband.”
She further testified that when they got to the said house, there was a third person, a man only identified as Eustace, and Malama led her to the living room but she was shocked that they were only the three of them at the prayer house.
“We reached there around 16:00 to 17:00 and were there up to 18:00 to 19:00. He gave me food and as I was eating the food, I just noticed that Eustace had disappeared. He [Malama] locked the door, he moved closer and started caressing me all over my body, my breasts, my thighs. Then he forced me to the carpet, climbed on top of me and tried to remove my pant and touched my private parts,” the woman narrated. “I told him I was a married woman and that it was a crime. I told him he was a pastor and it was wrong. That’s how he left me and I demanded that he takes me back.”
Asked why she did not scream, the woman who only reported the matter on June 13 this year said she was just crying.
Trial continues.