VICE PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga’s lawyer says reports that military personnel were used to dump his estranged wife’s property at her house in Eastlea were not only misleading, but a vain attempt to scandalise their client’s name by a newspaper struggling to make sales.
In fact, the Vice President hired a vehicle to deliver the
personal items, which cannot be part of a divorce settlement to Ms Marry
Mubaiwa after a pre-trial conference agreement that the property would be
delivered.
But her family suggested it should be handed over at Ms
Mubaiwa’s house, rather than her parents’ house.
It was only after this delivery that a letter was received
from Ms Mubaiwa’s lawyer asking for the delivery of the personal items to be
delayed until Ms Mubaiwa had given her lawyer instructions on where the
personal property should be sent.
The Vice President and his estranged wife Ms Marry Mubaiwa
are entangled in a divorce action at the High Court, centred on a custody
dispute for their three children and the usual discussions over how property
should be divided.
The private weekly newspaper, The Standard, in its article
titled “Chiwenga humiliates ‘seriously ill’ ex-wife Marry”, claimed that VP
Chiwenga used military personnel to embarrass his estranged wife by dumping her
property at her house in Eastlea on Friday.
The VP’s lawyer, Mr Wilson Manase, dismissed the report as
meant to deliberately scandalise the good name of his client. “We read with
utmost dismay the report which is replete with falsehoods,” he said.
“We are studying the purport of the article in order to
correctly advise our client on whether he should take an appropriate action,
more particularly when they claim that military personnel were involved.
“I do believe this is a headline to sell the newspaper,
more particularly in an economic environment where people are not buying their
paper.” Vice President Chiwenga, said the lawyer, never wanted to humiliate his
estranged wife, with whom he has children together.
“VP Chiwenga never used military personnel to transport the
property in question but hired a truck.”
To set the record straight, Mr Manase said the property
alluded to in the report was delivered to Ms Mubaiwa following an arranged
meeting attended by both parties in Advocate Lewis Uriri’s chambers and an
agreement that purely personal property belonging to Ms Mubaiwa should be
delivered to her.
Ms Mubaiwa’s lawyer, Ms Beatrice Mtetwa, and her father, Mr
Kenny Mubaiwa and his wife Helga, were all present and made a request that they
be urgently given immediate access to all outstanding clothing, her vehicle and
her personal items, said Mr Manase.
According to the lawyer, Ms Mubaiwa had alleged that the
Vice President was denying her access to clothes which are not part of the
dispute over the sharing of property now before the courts.
“These sentiments were aptly captured in the pre-trial
conference minutes drafted and filed with the High Court,” he said.
Initially the property was supposed to be delivered to
where Mubaiwa is staying, which is her parents’ home in Folyjon Crescent in
Glen Lorne.
According to correspondences between the parties’ lawyers,
an attempt was made to deliver the property at the agreed address, but Ms
Mubaiwa’s father, Mr Kenny Mubaiwa, indicated that the goods should not be
delivered there since his house was not his daughter’s home, as she had her own
house in Eastlea.
Mr Manase said after delivering the goods to the Eastlea
house, he afterwards received a letter from Ms Mtetwa advising them that she
had not got full instructions from her client on the delivery of the property
to Eastlea house.
“Without instructions from client, we are unable to respond
to your letters,” wrote Ms Mtetwa to VP Chiwenga’s lawyer, requesting for stay
of the delivery until she has received full instructions.
In this regard, Mr Manase said the reporter should have
verified the facts from both parties to come up with an accurate and objective
piece imbued with credibility.
“The article clearly insinuate that our client was abusing
his position which the paper is repeating for the second time now, just to
tarnish the image of the Vice President,” he said. Herald
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