FORMER first lady Grace Mugabe allegedly assaulted a
housekeeper at her Blue Roof mansion with fists and a shoe after she accepted a
cash gift as a wedding present from former president Robert Mugabe, according
to a High court application filed by the ex-worker.
In her court application, Shupikai Chiroodza claims she was
accused of “milking” the 95-year-old before being “unfairly” dismissed by Grace
and the Civil Service Commission.
Grace is already mired in other legal woes after allegedly
assaulting Gabriella Engels, a Johannesburg model, with a power extension cord
in 2017. The South Africa National
Prosecuting Authority applied for her extradition.
Chiroodza, through her lawyers Mtetwa and Nyambirai, is
seeking to be reinstated to her old job and enjoy full benefits that would have
accrued to her from the time she was
“unlawfully” dismissed in May 2017.
The matter is filed under case number HC3310/19. Chiroodza
was employed by the Civil Service Commission in April 2008, then known as the
Public Service Commission, in the
Office of the President and Cabinet under the State
Residences department, as a housekeeper at State House. She was then
transferred to the Mugabes’ Blue Roof mansion and promoted to the position of Comptroller 111 on June 21
2015.
The Civil Service Commission and Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare minister Sekai Nzenza are cited as the first and second
respondents respectively amid reports
that the commission is negotiating an out-of-court
settlement.
According to her court application, Chiroodza received a
call to report to the human resources office on March 13 2017 where she was
told there was an instruction from the
senior principal director (Department of State Residences),
Innocent Tizora, to place her on forced leave. Tizora told Chiroodza that the
forced leave was in connection with a wedding gift. Chiroodza demanded written
communication notifying her that she was being placed on forced leave.
“… I then asked him to release me to go back to my work
station. Immediately after leaving his office on my way to my work station I
received a phone call from Dr Tizora
again telling me that the former first lady (Grace Mugabe)
was waiting for me back at my station and so I drove there and arrived around
1700hrs,” she says in the
application.
“Upon arrival at my work station at about 1700hrs on 13th
March 2017, I saw the then first lady waiting for me, when I reached the main
door of the house where she was
standing she started shouting at me and seized me by the
neck and pulled me inside the house and locked the door. She started beating me
with clenched fists shouting,
‘unoda kuzviita ani pano? (who do you think you are here?)
you are milking my husband behind my back’. I did not utter a word as I was
terrified. She removed her shoes and
continued assaulting me with it and blood started gushing
out of my forehead, mouth and nose. The assault continued for about 20 minutes.
“At that point some cars arrived with some visitors, she
said to me ibva pano! Dai asiri ma visitors angu asvika I wanted to kill you
ndakangozvinzwa kuti waudza ani or
report anywhere I will definitely kill you. (Get away from
here, had it not been for my visitors who have arrived, I wanted to kill you.
If I hear you told anyone or report
anywhere, I will definitely kill you). After taking her
visitors to the other rooms, the former first lady harshly said to me, ‘I want
the money that you were given as a
gift on your wedding and I don’t want to see you here
again’. I left and drove home.”
In the application, Chiroodza explains how the human
resources section took back the car she had been using without any proper
handover. She then received a letter from
Tizora on May 19 2017 stating that she had been discharged
from the service with effect from May 11 2017.
She says no investigations had been carried out on the
allegations of misconduct against her. There was also no written letter
notifying her of the allegations and no
report had been forwarded to a disciplinary committee for a
formal hearing according to the Public Service Regulations 2000.
“In short, none of the most basic procedure for dismissing
a person from employment with CSC were followed, hence I contend that I was not
dismissed and remain an employee
of the CSC,” the application reads.
“However, at the time, I did not have the courage to go and
ask Dr Tizora about this or make any move with regards to this issue because I
greatly feared for my life.”
Chiroodza then approached the CSC at the end of May the
same year but could not get assistance, the application reads. Further
follow-ups did not help until Tizora was
replaced with Douglas Tapfuma in January 2018. Tapfuma also
failed to help.
Chiroodza said her current application is for “a
declaratory order and consequential relief in the terms set out in the draft
order, particularly that to declare the following: The applicant was not
dismissed or otherwise terminated from her contract of employment in terms of
the Public Service Act or its Regulations. The applicant remains an employee of
the Civil Service Commission until such a time as contract is lawfully dealt
with.” Newsday
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