THE extortion case involving preacher Tapiwa Freddy, pictured, and ZBC presenter Rutendo Makuti has taken a new twist after the broadcaster’s engineer Mutetepi Maushe appeared in court yesterday on allegations of purporting to be Makuti’s brother in an alleged bid to milk the preacher.
Initially Makuti appeared in court last week on allegations of extorting the prominent preacher of US$20 000 after their love affair went sour before being released on $5 000 bail.
In a stunning turn of events, Freddy was then arraigned before the court on Thursday on allegations of raping and assaulting Makuti and was released on free bail with the case set to continue on December 6.
Yesterday, the saga continued to unfold after Maushe was charged with allegedly conniving with Makuti to extort money from Freddy.
Prosecutors allege that sometime in 2020, the preacher was having a love affair with Makuti after her husband had passed away.
It is alleged that during that time, Makuti connived with Maushe and hatched a plan to extort money from Freddy before threatening to expose their affair if the preacher failed to meet their demands.
Prosecutors said Maushe contacted Freddy and introduced himself as Makuti’s brother by the name of Tapson Makuti when in actual fact he is just a work colleague.
He is alleged to have gone to demand US$20 000 so that they do not open a rape charge against the preacher at the police.
He also threatened to expose the adulterous affair to the public which would tarnish Freddy’s reputation.
The court further heard that Maushe continued contacting Freddy on several occasions demanding the said amount of money.
On November 11, Maushe reportedly contacted Freddy again and gave him a 24-hour deadline to pay the money as instructed — an acknowledgement that he had actually raped Makuti.
Prosecutors said Freddy gave in to Maushe and Makuti’s demands and handed over a Mercedes Benz E250 sedan after they threatened to tarnish his image on social media.
Freddy realised that the extortion was going to continue and the pressure being exerted on him was too much to bear which led him to report the matter to the police.
Makuti was arrested when she was tricked by the preacher, who requested her to come for a meeting so that they discuss on the acknowledgement to the rape charges and payment of the US$20 000.
by
Shamaine Chirimujiri
STAFF WRITER