HARARE – Davis Marapira, the minister of state in the office of the president, pestered a 19-year-old beneficiary of his scholarship for sex, it was claimed Monday.
Marapira tried to lure the teenager to his hotel and expressed frustration when she repeatedly spurned his advances.
“You should have been here 6AM to come and say good morning,” Marapira wrote to the young woman on February 15 this year after expressing frustration that “you don’t even care that I am in your city.”
The chats were published by the Masvingo Mirror on Monday. The newspaper did not say how it obtained them.
Marapira sponsored the teenager’s A Level education and continued the support when she enrolled at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, although the support has become erratic, according to the chats.
“I believe from the day I first saw you you have developed in everything,” Marapira said in another message.
“You claim that which you cannot do,” he wrote in another.
The woman responded: “What?”
“To love,” Marapira responded.
“Hautondidi hako (You don’t love me),” the minister continued, to which the teen responded: “Sir, I don’t understand the kind of love I have to show you other than the one I have for you Honourable. If you’re no longer taking care of me because of that, it’s okay Sir.”
Marapira blamed the drying financial support on “a lot of pressure with election preparations” – a reference to Zanu PF primary elections held at the end of March.
“From then on my financials will be back to normal,” he wrote.
The woman was not convinced, telling Marapira that it was clear the financial support was being withheld because she would not accede to his requests to meet him in his hotel room.
“Sir, it’s not only about elections but love as well,” she told him.
Marapira, a full minister currently overseeing project implementation at the lands ministry, declined to answer our questions.
