Zimbabwe vice president Constantino Chiwenga’s wife has been remanded in custody by a Harare court on charges that she attempted to kill her husband while he was in hospital, forge a marriage certificate and money laundering (externalising more than $1m).
Marry Mubaiwa Chiwenga, who was arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission on Saturday, faces a lengthy prison term if found guilty. The state claims that Mrs Chiwenga tried to kill her husband when she visited him and attempted to forcibly remove a venous giving set and central venous catheter while on a deathbed in South Africa before he was airlifted to China where he was hospitalized for five months.
Chiwenga played a key role in toppling the late former president Robert Mugabe in a defacto military coup in 2017.
The state outlines reads in part, “During this time when the complainant was admitted at the hospital, he was helpless and would rely on medical staff and the security personnel whenever he was moving from one point to the other.”
Indications are that on July 8, 2019, she ordered security personnel to leave her and the retired general so they would discuss some private issues.
“Whilst alone with the complainant, accused unlawfully removed the medical Intra Venus Giving Set as well as Central Venous Catheter which were inserted to the complainant and the complainant started bleeding profusely.
“The accused forced the complainant off the bed, held him by hand and moved out from the ward before being intercepted by the security personnel at the exit door. The hospital staff was called by the security personnel and they reconnected the intra venous giving set and the central venous catheter and resuscitated the condition of the complainant.”
Mrs Chiwenga allegedly disappeared from the hospital after the administration alerted security personnel.
She is also accused of illegally externalizing funds and forging a marriage certificate in order to grab the family property in case of Chiwenga died while in hospital.
Retired General Chiwenga, who recently disclosed that he was suffering from idiopathic oesophageal stricture, is in the process of divorcing Marry, whose previous husband, former soccer player Shingi Kaondera, is also accusing her of forging the couple’s divorce certificate.
BAIL APPLICATION
Meanwhile, in papers filed at the High court for her bail application, Marry said some of the money she allegedly externalised belongs to Chiwenga and the former army general be investigated over the source of that money.
“On the charge of externalisation of money to China, the state has only evidence of one witness that the appellant will challenge at trial...The money does not belong to the appellant, and in fact, it was money belonging to her husband, who should be the person in the dock assuming an offence, was committed,” read part of the papers filed by Marry's lawyers according to The Anchor.
In her bail application, Marry the former ex-model says she's suitable for bail because she's ill. She offered to pay $10,000 and said she was agreeable to any condition set by court so she can be set free. She also disputed the allegations of attempting to murder her husband as laughable, instead accusing her husband of working with the state because they are divorcing.
“Laughable is the so-called last exhibit. The state says it has a photograph of a blooded shirt that the Vice President was wearing...Surely an exhibit of that nature, despite it being merely of circumstantial relevance would have been kept and safeguarded. A photograph of a blooded t-shirt remains a photograph. It proves nothing and cannot override primary evidence.
“One is reminded of the saying that surely when a hyena wants to eat its children, it first accuses them of smelling like goats.”