Acting President Constantino Chiwenga’s estranged wife
Marry has thrown another salvo at her husband, claiming the retired military
commander is a dangerous character who uses the army to deal with perceived
personal enemies.
In court papers filed on Thursday opposing Chiwenga’s
application for custody of their minor children, Marry said the acting
president had also exposed his shortcomings as a leader of a family, let alone
a country.
In her response to Chiwenga’s application which is before
the High Court seeking custody of their minor children, Marry said she could
not be a danger to their children as was being alleged by her husband.
“I only communicated with the security personnel and when I
was advised that I was not welcome at my own home, I did not take the law into
my hands as he did by deploying
his agents with unlawful instructions at the gate,” Marry
said.
“If there is anyone who is dangerous, it is Chiwenga. He
has proven that he can suborn the army when it suits him and he can use them
(soldiers) to deal with perceived opponents.”
Marry said she was shocked to read reports that she was
exposing the children to black magic yet it was Chiwenga who was known for
using black magic.
She said the black magic issue was even mentioned in his
previous divorce proceedings with Jocelyne Chiwenga.
“I deny the allegations that I exposed my children to black
magic as alleged. I was shocked when I read those allegations. I deny knowledge
of such items and that I exposed my children to any of these items. It is the
respondent (Chiwenga) who is on record as having been accused of using black
magic in his previous divorce proceedings,” Marry said.
She said Chiwenga could not say she was unable to take care
of the children because of ill health, saying the VP was focusing on the speck
in her eye while ignoring the log in his.
“He is the one who has globetrotted in search of medical
attention and has been to India, South Africa and China. Even after his return
from China, he still has a personal doctor and a nurse to take care of him on a
daily basis and has the audacity to argue that because of my health, I am not a
good parent,” Marry said.
She said despite her suffering from the injuries inflicted
by a bombing at White City Stadium in Bulawayo in 2018, she had been taking
care of her children while Chiwenga was bedridden.
“It was convenient for me to be with the children when
Chiwenga was in hospital for more than 123 days, but it’s now inconvenient
because he has fallen out of love with me,” Marry said.
“This type of thinking is intended to take the law back to
a period when women had no rights. Chiwenga must be reminded that he does not
get custody of the children because he has soldiers to suborn, but can get them
through the courts; as it stands, he must return the children to me.”
She said Chiwenga has a tendency of deserting the
matrimonial home as seen by what he did when he returned from China for medical
attention.
Marry said Chiwenga could not chase her from their
matrimonial home but must stay where he was residing when he came back from
China.
“I deny that I was barred from visiting him in China. I did
go to China to see him, but the fact that my children needed me most and the
fact that he accepted that position made him agree that I should be with my
children in Zimbabwe,” she said.
Marry said the issue in the present proceedings was not
about ownership of the vehicles she was seeking to use.
She said Chiwenga went to great lengths trying to explain
how these vehicles were acquired including confessing unsavoury facts about his
relationship with businessman Kuda Tagwireyi.
Marry said the averments did not take him anywhere because
the application was not about the ownership.
“When Chiwenga came back from China, he chose to stay away
from the minor children and only to claim his love for them when I got
arrested,” she said.
“Had he considered their interests, he would have come
straight to the matrimonial home to be with them no matter what differences he
had with me. His children had to find out about his presence in Zimbabwe via
public television and this says a lot about his new-found commitment to them.”
Marry said it was embarrassing for someone who held himself
to be acting president of Zimbabwe to bring up such allegations against a woman
who had been his wife and mother of his children in a country that tried to be
the champion of gender equality and to respect the rights of women and
children.
The couple has, however, since agreed to resolve their
differences outside the courtroom, an agreement reached through their lawyers
on Friday.
This was not before the two had thrown mud at each other
over the past week, exposing in graphic detail the inside of their troubled
marriage with allegations of drug abuse, witchcraft, illegally acquired wealth
and other dirty stuff being laid bare in damning affidavits deposited at the
High Court where the divorce proceedings were set to be heard. Standard
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