HARARE – Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s estranged and ailing wife was on Monday barred by a court from leaving the country to seek treatment in South Africa.
Justice Benjamin Chikowero of the Harare High Court said Marry Chiwenga, nee Mubaiwa, “has placed inadequate information before the court to warrant alteration of her bail conditions.”
The former model applied for the easing of her bail conditions, including the surrender of her passports, which were imposed after she was arrested in December last year on a slew of charges including money laundering, fraud, assault and the attempted murder of her husband in a South African hospital.
Her doctors say the 37-year-old has severe lymphoedema manifesting in “gross swelling of both hands”, “gross swelling of both feet” and “large open wounds on both arms with some degree of granulation.”
But Justice Chikowero said he was left unconvinced that there are no specialists in Zimbabwe who can treat the mother of Chiwenga’s three young children.
“What I have before me by way of applicant’s medical condition is one-sided… Applicant says she sought medical treatment in Zimbabwe post December 4 (when she was arrested). She says those efforts have not alleviated her condition. Instead, her health has deteriorated. She has produced neither medical records to substantiate her assertion that she has failed to obtain the care she needs in this country… So there is a gap in the evidence,” Justice Chikowero ruled.
Chiwenga’s estranged wife accuses him of abusing the legal process to get her jailed so he can secure divorce and also deny her access to their minor children.
The Vice President earlier this month flew to China for treatment.
