Chigwedere's son spits venom

Former Education minister Aeneas Chigwedere's son, Mangwiza, has revealed that his father has over 40 children, but only loves four.

Mangwiza, who is embroiled in a nasty witchcraft saga with Chigwedere, accused his father of attempting to divert from the family's primary priority of seeking to conduct a cleansing ceremony by compelling him to undergo DNA paternity tests.

In response to Chigwedere's court application for paternity tests, in order to prevent him from benefiting from the former governor in the event of his death, Mangwiza said he was prepared to go through the procedure. But Mangwiza said he would rather not do it on terms set out by his father alleging he was capable of manipulating the results, him being a powerful politician.

"The applicant (Chigwedere) is a learned man and should not stoop this low in order to worm out of a human life case and attempt to put paternity tests versus the right of life, versus cruel and inhuman degrading treatment, versus slavery through cultural means and all that continues in the eyes of the court almost two years later," Mangwiza said in his answering affidavit.

"Furthermore, as learned as he is, he should have simply written a will that I will not inherit anything from him. I do not need blood money or blood assets and whatever he got through human loss of life. I can work on my own. All I am asking the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) is for cancellation of more than 200 cultural procedures he did on me while keeping me away from my mother for more than 20 years and has the audacity to say I am not his child."

The former governor's son wondered how Chigwedere expected the court to accept the request.

Mangwiza said he had only spoken to Chigwedere once in the past three-and-a-half years after accusing him of bewitching his children.

"He has never approached me at any point in time on paternity tests. The only time I spoke to him is when he told me I was going to die, telling me the ancestors were not happy and that I would not live long," he said.

"I have accepted that tests be carried out and am not worried about the infringement of privacy on my part as there is nothing to lose in knowing who my father is. In fact, it would be a relief knowing he is not my father due to his atrocities on his very own blood and family. Hopefully, he does the same when the time for cleansing comes as he is running away from it."

In 2016, the Chigwederes approached the ConCourt, urging it to compel Chigwedere to carry out an exorcism ceremony with a view to cast out goblins, but the court dismissed the matter on the basis that Mangwiza had used the wrong procedure in approaching it.