Harare – Mary Mubaiwa, the ailing former wife of Zimbabwean Vice President Constatino Chiwenga was reportedly issued a warrant of arrest on Friday.
According to reports, this happened after she was unable to climb the stairs to the courtroom due to ill health.
Mubaiwa was supposed to appear before a magistrate, facing charges of attempting to kill her husband while he was in hospital in South Africa three years ago.
It breaks my heart to see one of Zimbabwe’s most senior lawyers, the award winning Beatrice Mtetwa breaking down in front of cameras explaining how ZANUPF has destroyed the Justice system in Zimbabwe!
This affects anyone once you lose ZANU protection as we always tell ZANU folks pic.twitter.com/s4xm1yIDGU
— Hopewell Chin’ono (@daddyhope) August 5, 2022
Her lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa reportedly wept in court after magistrate Florence Chakanyuka issued the warrant of arrest, reported NewsDay
Mtetwa told Chakanyuka that her client was seriously ill and lying on a stretcher bed outside the court and, therefore, she needed to assess her condition before making any ruling on her absence from the courtroom, the report said.
Prosecutor George Manokore did not oppose Mtetwa’s application to assess Mubaiwa’s health condition.
“But Chakanyuka, after adjourning the matter, returned to say there were no provisions for the court to go outside the courtroom to assess Mubaiwa’s condition and issued an arrest warrant,” the report said.
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Mubaiwa, 40, once moved among the cream of Zimbabwean society, first married to an international footballer who she left to take up with the then-army chief Chiwenga, AFP reported.
Her star kept rising after Chiwenga orchestrated the 2017 coup against Robert Mugabe, landing him the vice presidency as his ally Emmerson Mnangagwa took power.
But then money laundering, fraud and murder charges derailed her ambitions. A lymphatic disease meanwhile ravaged her body so badly that doctors were planning to amputate her forearm.
Mubaiwa and Chiwenga were wed under customary law, including a traditional offering of cattle to her family.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
