HARARE – Acting President Constantino Chiwenga has deployed soldiers to stop his estranged wife, Marry, from accessing their matrimonial home in Borrowdale Brooke, Harare, according to her lawyer.
Marry was arrested on December 14 accused of attempting to kill Chiwenga in July when the vice president was hospitalised in a hospital in Pretoria, South Africa. She also faced charges of moving over US$1 million out of the country illegally and attempting to fraudulently upgrade her marriage to the retired army general from an unregistered customary union.
The former model was released on $50,000 bail by the High Court on January 6.
Now her lawyers say Marry is being prevented from returning to the home he shared with Chiwenga, and in which a judge ordered her to reside while awaiting trial.
Chiwenga has also denied her access to their three children aged eight, seven and five, according to her lawyer Taona Nyamukura.
“We are actually considering court action against General Chiwenga,” Nyamukura told the Voice of America’s Studio 7.
Nyamukura said his client had been unable to have access to personal items and properties within the home including clothes and vehicles following her release from prison.
International human rights lawyer Dewa Mavhinga accused Chiwenga – who has initiated divorce proceedings against Marry – of “taking the law into his own hands.”
“I think, with all due respect, the Acting President is out of order. It is abuse of institutions and of the army to use the army to bar his estranged wife from accessing her home in compliance with an existing court order,” Mavhinga said.
“What needs to happen now, and which is an appeal to General Chiwenga, is to respect the rule of law. When the court has made a pronouncement, it must be respected.
“If General Chiwenga is aggrieved or is unhappy with the ruling of the court, he should not resort to the army to have his way. He must equally approach the courts and use the legal procedures set out within the framework of the rule of law to appeal the ruling and have it overturned by the courts and not to ignore or seek or purport individually to set aside a court ruling and act outside the framework of the rule of law. It is not good for himself and the image of the country of Zimbabwe.”
Mavhinga said Marry Chiwenga “should have access to their children and to her property within the matrimonial home as per court ruling”, adding: “This is simply a matter of respecting the rule of law.”
This is not the first time Chiwenga has been accused of abusing the army in his domestic issues. In 2014, when he was divorcing his previous wife, Jocelyn Mauchaza, she accused him of using soldiers to deny her entry to their farm located 1.5 kilometers off the Shamva Road. The army stepped in only hours after the court had issued a divorce decree.
Chiwenga masterminded the coup that led to the ouster of the late former President Robert Mugabe in November 2017 before installing Mnangagwa as president.
