HARARE – Marry Mubaiwa’s trial finally took off Monday with a witness telling a court of “blood stains on the floor” when the former model allegedly dragged her then ailing husband from the bed of a South African hospital in what forms the basis of her attempted murder trial.
Mubaiwa denies the attempted murder of vice president Constantino Chiwenga in 2019.
On Monday, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) began trial by calling one of Chiwenga’s nurses, Warrant Sibanda, who told the court that Mubaiwa would often request for privacy each time she visited her husband.
“She would come around 10PM and she would be in the company of one Doctor Bruce,” he testified.
Sibanda said visiting hours would usually ended at 6PM.
“When she came, she would ask us to leave the hospital room, saying she wanted privacy,” he said.
“On the 8th of July, I asked to be excused to take a shower and do the laundry.
“When I came back, the security team told me that they had a scuffle with the accused.
“There were blood stains at the door.”
Sibanda said there was blood also on Chiwenga’s T-shirt.
“When I left to the laundry room, the complainant was on the bed.
“When I returned, I was told by the security team that he (Chiwenga) was at the front (outside his room). In the state he was in, he would not have been able to get off the bed by himself.
“After that incident, whenever the accused person would ask for privacy, we, the security team and doctors would refuse to leave,” he said before the trial was rolled over to March 13.
The visibly ailing Mubaiwa spent the entire day at the courts as her case dragged on.
She was asleep in the dock, leaning on her aide’s shoulder as her trial progressed.
In the morning, through her lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, Mubaiwa applied for recusal of the magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka claiming she could be biased against her.
Mtetwa said Chakanyuka was unlikely to hand down a fair ruling in the matter.
She further submitted that “an application for recusal does not require that there be proof that the judicial officer is biased.”
“All that is required is that there is a perception that they are biased,” the lawyer said.
“That perception exists in this case where the bystander do not perceive that the accused will receive justice before you.
“In our respectful option, you have not exhibited that you are independent and unbiased.”
The application was thrown out with the magistrate making it clear that she would not step down when the defence presented no evidence to prove she would be biased.
