Mubaiwa family laments as Chiwenga wife's health deteriorates

THE family of Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga's estranged wife Marry Mubaiwa say they are in agony as the health of the former top model deteriorates at a time she is being denied her passport to seek medical attention outside the country.

Mubaiwa is admitted to a private hospital in Harare where her right hand is awaiting amputation, according to her lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa.

Mtetwa this week told magistrate Lazini Ncube that her client was admitted on Tuesday last week and diagnosed with a severe syndrome which is chronic.

According to a medical report by specialist trauma and orthopaedic surgeon John Nyahunzvi, Mubaiwa was on five-week post-revision surgery for a right humerus shaft refracture and her condition was critical.

The surgeon said her condition has necessitated hospitalisation and stabilisation with a plan for emergent right high above elbow amputation as soon a she is deemed medically stable.

But despite the need for emergency medical attention and surgery, the family said there is little they could do for her to travel out of the country since the courts were refusing to release her passport.

Businessman Kenny Mubaiwa, who is father to Marry, told The NewsHawks this week that under the circumstances, they have no other plan to ensure their ailing daughter is assisted and described the situation as painful.

"We would have wished to have her flown for treatment outside the country, but there is no plan as it stands because she doesn't have a passport. If we had her passport, we would have tried something and see whether it works or not," Mubaiwa said.

"She cannot do anything including going outside the country just like all the others who fall ill and fly out for medical attention, she is being denied that opportunity.

"She broke her arm on January 29 this year but they have tried an operation, nothing worked, they had to put something, again not working and it's swollen and she is in pain.

"The operation was not successful and we would then need a second opinion and we are troubled on what to do next. She is in serious pain so I don't know how we can be helped," Mubaiwa said.

He would not be drawn into commenting on whether they had sought political help to have the issue resolved.

Marry has however previously told The NewsHawks that she has engaged President Emmerson Mnangagwa over the matter several times, to no avail.

Apart from being denied her passport, Marry has also told The NewsHawks that she has also failed to access money for medication from her accounts because of political intervention, resulting in her relying on her family for treatment.

Family sources said they felt helpless and could not confront Chiwenga over the matter, whom they believe is behind her persecution.

Marry is embroiled in a nasty divorce with Chiwenga and is also facing charges of attempting to kill the VP while he was hospitalised in a South African hospital.

She is also facing charges of marriage fraud and externalising over US$1 million.

Marry, who is also facing another charge of assaulting a domestic worker, last year took to Twitter to express her frustration over the lack of assistance she was getting.

"I have approached the current President many times, he has done nothing and has completely ignored me, citing reasons that his subordinate does not take instructions from him, who is the boss now?" Marry wrote on microblogging site Twitter in October.

"If E.D.M (Mnangagwa) wanted to help me, he would have done so, a long time ago because he knows there is no grain of truth in all these fabrications, he had put me out in the open to be terminated, he promised vehicles, security, accommodation since I am being denied access to my homes and all my bullet proof vehicles taken from me, my money and all but absolutely nothing."

She has also been denied access to her children aged 11, 10 and eight, whom she has not seen or spoken to in more than two years.

Marry has on several occasions collapsed outside the courts as she struggles with ill-health while she has been continuously denied her passport.

Other people who face criminal charges have been allowed to travel for medical reasons. This has raised fears that a big political hand could be behind the action against her.

Chiwenga himself has on several occasions travelled outside the country to China, India and South Africa for medical reasons.

When The NewsHawks asked Mtetwa on Thursday to shed light on Marry's current state of health in hospital, she referred questions to her mother, who was unreachable on mobile phone.