BY NQOBANI NDLOVU HIGH Court judge Justice Slyvia Chirawu-Mugomba will this morning hear a case where Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga’s estranged wife, Marry Mubaiwa is challenging her 10-day detention pending a health examination to ascertain if she is fit to stand trial.
Harare magistrate Lazani Ncube on Tuesday ordered her detention after two State doctors based at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Charles Nyamakachi and Fungisai Mazhandu, gave conflicting assessment reports about her condition.
In an application for review of the sentence filed at the High Court today, Mubaiwa’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa accused Ncube of malice and grossly misdirecting himself.
She cited Ncube and the State as the first and second respondents, respectively.
“The first respondent acted with malice in making the impugned decision and placing the applicant (Mubaiwa) in custody because the applicant had already been examined by three government medical doctors at Parirenyatwa without having been in custody and without any basis why the applicant should be in custody,” Mtetwa argued.
Mubaiwa, a former model, faces charges of money-laundering, fraud and attempted murder of the former military commander while he was hospitalised in a South African hospital in July 2019.
She denies the charges.
In her founding affidavit filed through her lawyers yesterday, Mubaiwa accused the Harare magistrate of fighting in the State’s corner.
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“In short, the court is seeking what it already has in the hope that it will get either compliant or lily-livered doctors who will rubber stamp what the respondents want. In all these circumstances, the first respondents’ ruling constitutes a gross miscarriage of justice and it must be set aside on the basis of the many serious irregularities and misdirection,” she submitted.
Chiwenga filed for divorce after recovering from a life-threatening illness in 2019.
Since then, Mubaiwa has failed to have access to her three minor children, with Chiwenga accusing her of being unfit to take custody of the couple’s three children.
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