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The wife of Zimbabwe’s vice president has been charged with attempting to kill her husband.
Marry Chiwenga, a former model and wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, appeared at the Harare Magistrates Court Monday where she was also charged with money laundering and fraud.
Chiwenga was the chief of Zimbabwe’s army who forced former President Robert Mugabe to resign. He later retired to become vice president to Mugabe’s successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Wearing a floral dress, Marry waved to journalists as she entered the court’s holding cells. The magistrate ordered that she remain in custody pending a bail hearing.
She is accused of trying to kill her husband in South Africa in July. First, she tried to deny medical treatment to Chiwenga by insisting he stay at a hotel instead of a hospital when he was flown to South Africa for emergency medical treatment, according to the charge sheet.
While Chiwenga was in the hospital on July 8, she went to his room, asked security to leave and, while alone with him, removed an intravenous drip and a catheter, causing him to bleed profusely, according to the charge sheet. She then forced him off the bed and tried to bring him out of the ward before being intercepted by his security detail, the charges said.
Chiwenga later went to China where he received medical treatment for four months and he returned to Zimbabwe in November. On his return, Chiwenga said he was suffering from a condition that narrowed or tightened his esophagus.
Marry is also accused of laundering about $1 million to neighboring South Africa by pretending to pay for goods that were never brought into Zimbabwe, according to the charges. The magistrate also denied her bail on those charges.
After her court appearance, her father, Kenny Mubaiwa, told reporters: “Justice will prevail at the end of the day so you don’t have to worry.” Marry Chiwenga was seen as close to her husband before and immediately after he led the military to force the late former president, Robert Mugabe, to resign in 2017.
She faded from the limelight as she and her husband began to suffer ill-health, both with visibly swollen hands. She has not been seen in public with Chiwenga since he returned from China in November. On Monday, the state-run Herald newspaper described her as “the estranged wife” of the vice president.
She was initially arrested at the weekend by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on charges of fraud, money laundering and breaching exchange control rules, and is accused of illegally transferring $900,000 to South Africa.
She denies all the accusations against her and her lawyer said she would seek bail at Zimbabwe’s High Court. She was refused bail for the initial charges after prosecutors argued she would flee the country or interfere with witnesses.
The charges follow media reports that Mubaiwa and Chiwenga, who returned to Zimbabwe last month after four months in a Chinese hospital where he was later treated for a blocked oesophagus, were set to divorce. Opposition politicians took to social media to accuse Chiwenga of using his position to influence a divorce settlement. Chiwenga could not be reached for comment.
Critics of ZACC saidit is conflicted because its head judge, Loice Matanda-Moyo, is married to Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo, a top ally of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and of Chiwenga. Advertisement The ZACC denies this and said it will prosecute all corruption cases without fear or favor. Prosecutors also told the court that Mubaiwa was being investigated for misusing U.S. dollar allowances meant for her husband’s security details.
President Mnangagwa has described fighting corruption as a top priority since assuming power in 2017. But critics and the opposition say the anti-corruption commission has mainly targeted people viewed as dissenters.
