EMBATTLED wife to Vice President, Constantino Chiwenga, Marry Mubaiwa who is accused of assaulting her children’s nanny has approached the High court seeking freedom after spending the weekend in custody.
Mubaiwa was locked up for the second time in a space of few weeks after Harare magistrate, Bianca Makwande denied her freedom for allegedly being a violent person who did not stop committing offences while on bail.
Among the charges she was arrested for before is that of attempting to kill her VP husband.
In her fresh bid for freedom, Mubaiwa said Makwande erred in denying her bail adding it was possible that her husband cooked up the story to ensure that she remained locked up.
Mubaiwa admitted being involved in some confrontation with her children’s minder, the now complainant Delight Munyoro, after the ex-model got wind the maid was negatively influencing her three minor children not to speak with her older children from her previous marriage.
“At the end of the day on January 27 2020, the appellant received reports from her older children that the younger children had shunned them and when approached they would go away and when she asked about their behaviour, they advised that Delight Munyoro the woman who looks after them had strongly warned them not to speak to their older siblings.
“On the 28th January 2020 when she went to collect the older children from school. She saw the complainant sitting in a vehicle with the usual security details from the army and Central Intelligence Office,” said Mubaiwa’s lawyers, Nyambirai and Mtetwa Legal practitioners.
They further explained, “She asked the complainant why she had instructed the younger children not to speak to their siblings and the complainant responded that applicant should be grateful she was caring for the children as their father obviously cannot look after them, there was no physical contact as complainant had armed personnel and was also sitting in the car.”
Mubaiwa also submitted that it was practically impossible to slap Munyoro on her left cheek also considering that her hands and arms are swollen and painful.
“She also failed to consider and take into account the many weaknesses in the state allegations and instead treated the allegations as if they were proven fact in both cases.
“She further erred and misdirected herself when she failed to consider and take into account the visible festering wounds and visibly swollen hand displayed to her making it unlikely that such swollen hand and arm would have been used to assault the complainant.
“She further erred and misdirected herself when she failed to consider and take into account the physical difficulties of a backslap on the left cheek using left hand on a person who was sitting in a motor vehicle whose right cheek would have been nearer to the appellant,” court was told.
Mubaiwa said any use of such visibly damaged hand and arm would have resulted in more pain for her especially taking into account that Munyoro is “a stout and well-rounded woman.”
Mubaiwa could not rule out the possibility of Chiwenga fabricating a case against her.
She said her husband attempted to engineer a breach of her bail conditions by pretending she was actually in possession of a passport which was in fact in the VP’s possession.
“The likelihood of his having engineered the assault charge in order to achieve what he failed to by lying about the passport was a factor the magistrate ought to have taken into account,” she said adding that Munyoro was Chiwenga’s servant and as such, was likely to obey his instructions.
Mubaiwa argued that Makwande also failed to note that no request for remand Form 242 was placed before the court and instead a charge sheet and outline of the state case were relied upon.
She said the facts presented in both charges do not disclose any violence and in terms of the law.
“She also misdirected herself in her failure to consider and take into account that the charges are mere allegations engineered by a disenchanted spouse and that the presumption of innocence still operates. She also erred in equating allegations of common assault to attempted murder.”
Mubaiwa begged the court to release her on her current bail conditions since she has complied from day one.
She failed to consider that the complainant in the assault allegations is the appellant’s husband ‘s employee and that she is under his control as are all other witnesses.
The case is yet to be set down for hearing. – Newszim
