The National Prosecuting Authority suffered a fresh blow on Tuesday in Marry Mubaiwa’s trial on fraud charges when a High Court judge denied he had issued her a marriage licence or certificate without the knowledge of her estranged husband, vice president Constantino Chiwenga.
The prosecution alleges that Mubaiwa fraudulently tried to procure registration or upgrade of her marriage to Chiwenga from an unregistered union to a marriage under the Marriage Act [Chapter 5:11] by misrepresenting to the marriage officer that her husband had consented to the registration, well knowing the same to be false.
Through the alleged misrepresentation, she allegedly induced the then Acting Chief Magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi to prepare marriage licences and complete the marriage register in preparation to solemnise the marriage at a private ceremony at the couple’s Borrowdale residence.
The ceremony did not take place because Mutevedzi did not find anyone at the residence when he went there to solemnise the marriage on July 2, 2019. The State alleges that Mubaiwa’s alleged misrepresentation “caused prejudice to good administration and reputation of the vice president.”
She denies charges of fraud and misrepresentation.
Justice Mutevedzi told Harare magistrate Lazini Ncube on Tuesday that Mubaiwa never came to him and there was never a danger of a marriage being registered in the absence of Chiwenga as the law required the partners to be both present.
On Monday, one of the state witnesses former Judge President Justice George Chiweshe washed his hands of the saga, testifying that he had no useful information for the prosecution because his only role was to refer Mubaiwa to Mutevedzi.
Justice Mutevedzi told the court that he was approached by Justice Chiweshe who told him that Chiwenga had asked him to solemnise his marriage with Mubaiwa.
“When he made that request, I then said I would personally solemnise that marriage. I took that decision because judges are not marriage officers in Zimbabwe. I had become the highest-ranking judicial officer in Zimbabwe and sending a junior magistrate would have been disrespectful to the vice president,” Justice Mutevedzi said.
Mutevedzi told court that he requested identity particulars of the couple from Justice Chiweshe and they were brought to his office by an individual he cannot remember. It was not Mubaiwa.
He further said there were documents that were needed to be completed under supervision including an application for a marriage licence and an affidavit by the couple consenting to wed.
“The couple were intended to get married on July 2, 2019. When I realised that there was information missing about the residential address, I called Judicial Service Commission secretary Walter Chikwana and I thought it prudent to access those details through that office since it was a superior office,” Mutevedzi said.
Accompanied by Thembinkosi Msipa of the JSC, Mutevedzi said he drove to the Chiwenga residence in Borrowdale Brooke on July 2.
“When we arrived at the residence, we realised that it was gated and there were guards there. We told them the purpose of our visit and that we wanted to go to the vice president residence. We had assumed that our passage was pre-organised but to my surprise nobody answered the call by the security officer,” Mutevedzi said.
He said they waited for a couple of hours and then called Chikwana to advise him that they were returning to the office.
Mutevedzi said without hearing from Chiwenga and his wife for two days, he cancelled the application for a marriage licence and unissued the marriage certificate.
“In summary, nobody contacted me until investigations started being made. The only people that I talked to were Chikwana and the judge president (Chiweshe),” Chikwana said.
Justice Mutevedzi further testified that Mubaiwa and Chiwenga were yet to consent and take oaths before him.
Under cross examination from Mubaiwa’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, Justice Mutevedzi confirmed that Mubaiwa had not misrepresented to him as the state alleged.
“I don’t know where the state got that I issued a marriage licence. There was no such application under oath before me. Taking of oath and signing the licence was never done as far as I know. A party to a marriage cannot consent on behalf of the other party without that person physically being present,” the judge said.
Taking the witness stand, JSC secretary Chikwana said Justice Mutevedzi was a better witness than he because he was not there when the then acting chief magistrate went to the Chiwenga residence.
A fourth state witness Nyarai Bwanya, who was the vice president’s aide, claimed in court that Mubaiwa forged a marriage certificate.
She said she heard Mubaiwa talking about a wedding while they were in India with Chiwenga, and she had been tasked to plan the wedding.
Before proceedings began on Tuesday, Mtetwa had requested that Mubaiwa visits her doctor before coming to court as she was in pain but magistrate Ncube denied the request, saying she could go after proceedings.
Tempers flared between the prosecution and Mtetwa who threatened to play a video showing Mubaiwa’s right arm dripping puss as she continues her battle with acute lymphedema.
The trial continues Wednesday.
