Marry Mubaiwa has spoken publicly about her marriage to Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, describing their relationship as painful and alleging that years of pethidine use contributed to her serious health problems. Her interview came a day after a Harare magistrate removed her from remand in the attempted-murder case that had kept her before the courts for nearly 7 years.
Mubaiwa, Chiwenga’s former wife, told journalist Simba Chikanza that she did not try to kill him and said he knew she was innocent. “Wherever he is, Chiwenga knows I never tried to kill him,” she said.
She also recalled her reaction when her lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, first told her about the charge. “I even laughed when my lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told me I was being charged with murder before she told me that she was being serious.”
The interview followed the decision by regional magistrate Musaiona Shotgame on Tuesday, 27 October, to reject a State request for another postponement. Prosecutors had sought to delay the case until 25 November, saying they needed time to engage witnesses. The magistrate cited the mental, physical and financial prejudice caused to Mubaiwa by the lengthy proceedings and removed her from further remand.
United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean journalist Simba Chikanza from ZimEye speaks to Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga’s ex-wife Mary Mubaiwa after a magistrate’s court today refused to postpone her case of attempted murder against her former husband.
This has left the case – which was midstream on trial – hanging in the balance, with the state saying it might proceed by way of summons if Chiwenga – who walked away from intense cross-examination by feisty human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa in camera – 22 months ago returns to the dock for fresh proceedings since the original magistrate has been promoted to the High Court.
Harare Regional Magistrate Musaiona Shortgame rejected the state’s request to postpone the trial until November 25, ruling that the prolonged seven-year proceedings subjected Mubaiwa to severe mental, physical, and financial prejudice.
The case concluded without a full substantive trial on the merits of the evidence due to the extended delays.
Mubaiwa had faced allegations of attempted murder, among others, emanating from claims that she tried to disconnect Chiwenga’s life-support equipment while he was hospitalised in South Africa in 2019 before he went to China for medical treatment, charges she has vehemently and consistently denied amid a protracted marital legal battle in which she lost almost everything: Freedom, marriage, children, right arm, left leg, money and property.— TheNewsHawks (@NewsHawksLive) October 27, 2026
The ruling brought the trial, which had been under way for years, to a halt in its current form. It did not conclude a full trial on the merits of the attempted-murder charge. Prosecutors may still revive the case by summons and begin proceedings afresh before another magistrate.
The previous magistrate, Feresi Chakanyuka, was promoted to the High Court. By then, the case had reached an advanced stage: former deputy health minister and Chiwenga’s doctor, John Mangwiro, had given evidence, while Chiwenga was expected to testify. He had not returned to court for about 22 months, leaving his evidence outstanding. The court ruling and the case’s procedural history are set out in further detail here.
Mubaiwa was charged in 2019 after Chiwenga accused her of interfering with his treatment at a medical facility in South Africa. The allegation was that she tried to disconnect equipment while he was hospitalised in Pretoria. Chiwenga later travelled to China for medical treatment, spending about 4 months there.
During earlier proceedings, Mangwiro told the court that he heard Chiwenga screaming in pain after an intravenous tube was allegedly pulled from his chest. He said medical staff rushed into the room and that the incident did not cause significant damage. The accusation also involved an alleged attempt to take Chiwenga out of the facility while he was receiving treatment. Mangwiro said he had reported concerns to the Office of the President and Cabinet and described Mubaiwa as a powerful presence around the patient. Mtetwa challenged his account, including by questioning why the alleged episode was not recorded in hospital documents, why other witnesses had not described it in their statements and why forensic results relating to blood said to have been found on Chiwenga’s T-shirt were absent. Chiwenga’s evidence had been expected before the case stalled.
Mtetwa welcomed the magistrate’s decision but said the outcome came after years of damage to her client. “So, yes, it is a victory but it is a victory which feels very hollow because it came so, so late in the day,” she said. The lawyer also said the case had not proceeded for 22 months because Chiwenga was not coming to court.
Mubaiwa has consistently denied trying to harm her former husband. She said in the interview that she laughed when she first heard the charge because the accusation seemed so far removed from her own understanding of what had happened. She also said Chiwenga’s alleged affairs had contributed to problems in their marriage and blamed him for presenting those difficulties as her fault.
She described the couple’s 8-year marriage as traumatic and said she had loved him genuinely before the relationship broke down. “All Chiwenga had to do was tell me that he no longer wanted me. Chiwenga never picked me from the streets or from a poor family,” she said. She added: “I no longer have any love for him, the way God intended for it to end was a bad way but it taught me many things.”
Mubaiwa rejected the suggestion that she had married Chiwenga for money. She said she had owned cars and enjoyed a good life before they met, and that her parents were wealthy property owners. She said the only money he gave her family was lobola. She also alleged that Chiwenga’s wealth was connected to Chinese nationals associated with the Chiadzwa diamond fields.
Her account of the relationship included allegations about pethidine, a restricted pain medication. Mubaiwa said Chiwenga used the drug and arranged for a military nurse to give her injections as well. “Chiwenga would inject himself with pethidine but order a military nurse to inject me with the same drug as he said he could not sleep without him knowing that I would also be asleep.”
She said the practice continued for years and that she received a break from the injections only when she became pregnant. Mubaiwa linked the drug use to her declining health and to the loss of an arm and a leg, both of which were amputated. “Chiwenga destroyed my mental health, my health and this is a man I took care of,” she said. Describing the effect on her body, she added: “It was painful because I lost my hand, I lost my foot, I lost because of Chiwenga, because of the pethidine that he induced in me.”
The medical problems and the couple’s separation have left Mubaiwa with lasting physical consequences. She said she had been left to deal with severe health difficulties while the legal case continued, and that she had lost her freedom, marriage, access to her children, money and property during the years of proceedings.
Mubaiwa and Chiwenga married customarily in 2011 and had 3 children together: Tendai, Christian and Michael. Mubaiwa also has 2 children from an earlier marriage. She said she had gone 7 years without seeing or speaking to the children she shares with Chiwenga.
“I just want my children, my house and cars. If you wanted someone to just bear you kids I would have said no,” she said. She also asked how Chiwenga would feel if their positions were reversed: “If I were to take those children and deny you access for seven years, how would you feel?”
Mubaiwa said she wanted an apology and described the separation from her children as one of the most painful parts of the marriage’s aftermath. Her words tied the family dispute to a wider grievance: that the legal and personal conflict had continued for years while she was unable to restore ordinary contact with her children.
She also turned her criticism towards Chiwenga’s political standing. Mubaiwa warned Zimbabweans that the way he had treated the mother of his children should concern the public if he sought the country’s highest office. She said she did not believe he was fit to lead the country and warned that Zimbabwe would face trouble under his leadership. In one pointed remark, she said: “Every dog has its own day, Chiwenga is a dog waiting for its day. My day was today, his day is coming.” She denied ever speaking to politician Chris Mutsvangwa, rejecting claims that she had been in contact with him.
Mubaiwa’s comments came as Chiwenga remains one of Zimbabwe’s most senior political figures. She used the interview to challenge both his account of their marriage and his fitness to lead, while speaking about the personal cost of the relationship’s collapse. The interview coverage containing her account of the marriage and pethidine allegations and additional details about her remarks are available at these links.
For now, the court decision has ended the existing proceedings against Mubaiwa without the trial reaching a final determination of the charge. The State can seek to restart the case through fresh summons. Mubaiwa, meanwhile, has used her first major public account of the marriage to deny the accusation, describe the health consequences she says followed years of drug use, and renew her demand to be reunited with her children.