HARARE – First lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has reportedly waded into the child custody battle between millionaire businessman Frank Buyanga and his ex-girlfriend Chantelle Muteswa, ZimLive understands.

Buyanga and Muteswa are embroiled in a bitter child custody battle for their five-year-old son which has played out in the courts.

Muteswa last week met Mnangagwa at State House where the first lady is said to have been “very angry”, telling Buyanga’s ex-girlfriend and aides that the businessman was using his powerful military connections to do as he pleases.

“She said she wanted Buyanga arrested. She said the businessman was using his connections to top army generals to do as he pleases and claimed that Buyanga had bribed his way through the courts to win favourable decisions,” a source briefed on the discussion said.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s wife is known to distrust and detest the military, seeing them as a threat to her husband’s tenuous rule.

The State House meeting, on November 5, was allegedly facilitated by one of Mnangagwa’s children, Collins, who has become very close to Chantelle, according to sources. Muteswa’s visit was confirmed by an entry on the State Residencies visitors’ register, seen by ZimLive. She signed off as S. Muteswa using an ID number that matches her South African ID on court records.

Aaron Mupandawana, a Zanu PF activist and suspected Central Intelligence Organisation agent, allegedly helped Muteswa file a police report at Avondale Police Station accusing Buyanga of being in contempt of court for taking their son with him to South Africa where he lives.

She also allegedly went to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission where she levelled accusations against Buyanga of “corrupting” judges so that they rule against her. Later, she went to the Judicial Service Commission where she made a similar complaint about corrupt judges.

Buyanga was granted temporary custody of the child in July after he argued that Muteswa was of no fixed abode. She has now tendered a new address with the courts and is fighting to have the child returned to her under an old arrangement in which Buyanga would have access rights.

Buyanga declined to comment, while Muteswa’s phone rang unanswered.

State House meeting … Auxillia Mnangagwa and Chantelle Muteswa met at State House on November 5, according to official records