Marry Mubaiwa’s attempted murder trial postponed

Zim Now Writer

Harare magistrate, Stanford Mambanje yesterday postponed Marry Mubaiwa’s attempted murder trial to September 19 after the presiding magistrate was unavailable.

Mubaiwa is facing charges of attempting to kill her ex-husband Vice President Constantino Chiwenga by unplugging his life support system in a South African hospital.

The State also told the court that Mubaiwa’s lawyer was engaged at the High Court.

During previous sittings, State witness former Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Dr John Mangwiro told the court that he caught Mubaiwa red-handed while holding the life support tube on the Vice President’s chest.

That prompted him to ask VP Chiwenga what was going on, since he was crying out for help, and was told that Mubaiwa was pulling the tube and it was painful. Dr Mangwiro, who is also VP Chiwenga’s personal doctor, further testified in his evidence-in-chief that he heard the VP crying out for help while in the intensive care unit after Mubaiwa tried to pull out an intravenous lifesaving tube.

Dr Mangwiro also told the court that Mubaiwa used to visit the VP with a white man called Bruce, who was purported to be a medical doctor but in actual fact, it was discovered that he was a veterinary practitioner. He said at one point, he was disappointed when Mubaiwa took VP Chiwenga into a hotel while he was in dire need of immediate hospitalisation.

Dr Mangwiro told the court that after noticing that Mubaiwa was refusing to have the VP admitted to a hospital, he phoned President Mnangagwa who then told him to try and convince her to have him admitted to a hospital.

“The President said continue to look after him and negotiate with her (Mubaiwa) and take him to the hospital.

“We were in a hotel where there was no equipment to resuscitate the patient and he could have died,” he said.

He said he had to report Mubaiwa’s actions to President Mnangagwa through a phone call and that is when they arranged an escape route and transferred the VP to China for further medical attention.