HARARE – Marry Mubaiwa, ex-wife to Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, has grown so critically ill that she now wets herself as she cannot gather enough strength to visit the loo.
This was revealed by her lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa in a fierce outburst over Harare magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka’s Friday decision to issue a warrant of arrest against the tormented former model, who could not climb the stairs to attend her court hearing due to ill health.
“She is not in wilful default for God’s sake!” Mtetwa told journalists outside court Friday.
“What sort of a justice system wants to arrest a woman who could not even go to the toilet; she has made herself wet because she can’t go to the toilet, because she is unwell. And you tell me she must be arrested because she is in this condition.”
Mubaiwa faces charges of attempting to kill her husband while he was in hospital in a South African hospital some three years ago.
Her trial has been in fits and starts due to her chronic condition.
She suffers from life-threatening lymphoedema.
In an interview with ZimLive weekend, Mtetwa, also an acclaimed human rights lawyer, accused Zimbabwe’s justice system of bias towards the VP’s case.
Mtetwa claimed Mubaiwa’s inhumane treatment exposed the country’s judiciary was being manipulated to settle personal scores and not deliver justice.
“Our justice system sucks…(there is) weaponisation of the law to deal with personal issues.
“First she was denied the right to seek medical attention outside the country.
“Then they issue a warrant for her arrest in that condition after she had made an effort to present herself in this condition,” said Mtetwa.
Mtetwa took time to dismiss social media reports weekend that her client had succumbed to her ailment.
On Sunday, a leaked video clip of Mubaiwa’s deformed right hand made the rounds on various social media platforms.
The majority of social media users sympathised with Mabaiwa dire situation, criticising the courts’ decision to deny her medical care abroad.
Mtetwa stated that Mubaiwa’s case had psychologically and emotionally affected her after witnessing her client’s inhumane treatment by Zimbabwe’s justice system, which consistently denied her client access to medical attention abroad that she desperately needed.
“It’s made me think whether we’re stealing from our clients under the guise of providing them with justice.
“I am of course emotionally and psychologically messed up.
“Justice is supposed to be just and tempered with mercy, humanity, empathy – all absent from our justice delivery system,” she said.
Chiwenga’s ex-wife Mubaiwa was scheduled to have her right arm amputated on Saturday, but her family refused, preferring to seek a second medical opinion abroad.
