Wife of Zimbabwe vice president charged with attempted murder on her husband

Authorities in Zimbabwe have charged the wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga of attempted murder.

Marry Mubaiwa was charged with trying to kill her husband when she appeared before a court in Harare Monday.

Described as Chiwenga’s estranged wife, Mubaiwa has been remanded in custody pending a bail hearing, The Herald reported.

She was also charged with money laundering.

The murder charge

According to prosecutors, Mubaiwa tried to kill the vice president earlier this month when she unplugged his life support tube in a South Africa hospital.

Mubaiwa first attempted refusing medical attention to Chiwenga and insisted he stayed at a hotel rather than a hospital when he was flown to South Africa for emergency medical treatment, according to the charge sheet.

After Chiwenga was taken to the hospital, Mubaiwa again went there and after ordering the security to leave “unlawfully removed the medical intravenous drip as well as a central venous catheter”, causing him to bleed abundantly.

The charge sheet also alleged she forced Chiwenga off the hospital bed and tried to take him out of the ward before security details intercepted them.

Chiwenga would later spend four months in China receiving medical treatment. He returned in November.

Other charges

Mubaiwa is also facing six counts of exporting foreign currency in breach of the Exchange Control Act and five counts of concealing transactions involving proceeds of crime in violation of the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act, The Herald reported. 

Mubaiwa allegedly exported US$1 million to South Africa and China after misrepresenting that her companies intended to buy tents, chairs and prepaid meters for consumption in Zimbabwe, but she ended up buying houses and top-of-the-range vehicles. 

The offenses were committed between October last year and May this year, The Herald reported.

Mubaiwa was arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) over the weekend.

Corruption fight 

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa earlier this year lamented about how deep the canker had eaten into the country’s fabric.

Speaking in a televised interview aired by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) on the eve of the country’s Independence Day celebrations on April 18, he admitted fight against corruption under his government had not been successful.

“Corruption is deep-rooted. I thought by making a pronouncement that ‘let us fight corruption’ it will go away. No. It’s not like that. To fight corruption, you need the police to investigate but there are elements of corruption in the police.

“Once you get past the corruption in the police, the National Prosecution Authority has to prosecute, but there are also elements of corruption in the NPA.

“Then the case must go to court and there are also elements that are corrupt in the judiciary. So the fight is so wide and deep,” he said.