Marry Mubaiwa says she lost an arm and a leg because of a painkiller that military nurses injected into her for years on the orders of her then husband, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga.
It is her first public account since her 2019 arrest. It comes days after a Harare magistrate took her off remand in an attempted murder case that dragged on for almost seven years. Chiwenga was the complainant. He has not publicly answered her claims. No response from his office had surfaced by Wednesday.
Marry Mubaiwa says “It was painful”
In an interview with journalist Simba Chikanza, Mubaiwa described a marriage that began customarily in 2011 and ended in ruin. She said Chiwenga injected himself with pethidine, a restricted opioid painkiller, then told a nurse to give her the same dose. He could not sleep, she said, unless she was asleep too. The couple has three children.
The nurses answered to him, she said, so none could refuse. The routine eased only when she was pregnant. She says she has not seen her children in seven years.
“Wherever he is, Chiwenga knows I never tried to kill him,” she said.
Mubaiwa blames the drug for her amputations. That link is her claim, and the reports reviewed include no medical records confirming it.
Two versions of the same drug
Her account runs almost opposite to what the court heard. Prosecutors alleged she tried to kill Chiwenga in a Pretoria hospital in 2019 by removing his drip and catheter. Dr. Willi Leo Sieling testified that tests showed Chiwenga had received pethidine he was never prescribed, and said Mubaiwa pressed him to give it. Sieling suspected someone on the security team administered it but could not say who.
John Mangwiro, then Zimbabwe’s deputy health minister and Chiwenga’s doctor, testified that Chiwenga worsened after her visits. Her lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, asked why medical records never mentioned the alleged hospital incident.
How the case ended
Regional Magistrate Musaiona Shotgame refused a State request to postpone the trial to Nov. 25 and removed Mubaiwa from remand. He said the long delay had caused her mental, physical and financial harm. Mtetwa told the court the case had stalled for 22 months because Chiwenga was not showing up.
The ruling is not a verdict. If prosecutors want to revive the case, they would have to proceed by summons. Chiwenga filed for divorce in December 2019. Mubaiwa now says she wants her children back, along with her house and cars.
She also took aim at Zimbabwe’s succession fight. She claimed she could get Chiwenga fired if she shared more, and said the country would be in trouble if he ever became president. Chiwenga helped lead the 2017 military takeover that ended Robert Mugabe’s rule. Local media have reported that he is eyeing the presidency when President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term ends.
She closed the interview on a different note. Mubaiwa said she has forgiven him and hopes God will too
