Merry Chiwenga-Mubayiwa: A spot-on definition of Gender-Based Violence

The physical pain that Merry is going through is not possible to share. However emotional torture is possible and empathize genuinely with Merry Chiwenga. She is going through a physical and mental torture, and to imagine that it is meted by a leadership in Zimbabwe government defeats everything about UBUNTU in us. She is stricken in political leadership plays unimaginable by common sense. The absolute horror of her existence is an accurate definition of gender-based-violence on women. Once a beauty pageant organizer, Merry is now reduced to her breath, breathing to know she is still alive and never beyond: her quality of life has been reduced immensely, will be so until her departing. She can't' walk her leg must be amputated; they say. Her arm was amputated some time ago. Yet, Chiwenga, a national leader is demonstrating to the nation satanism of the highest order: He still insist on his pound of flesh on Merry.

Seeing Merry in a wheelchair going to court together with her advocate Beatrice Mtetwa to plead to the courts for mercy, purely on health grounds; a plea was rejected with contempt. The ruthlessness, the cruelty, hard-heartedness of life is taking place in my country of birth, Zimbabwe. The philosophy UBUNTU is misplaced. How many times have I said whoever wants to experience the philosophy of UBUNTU must come to Germany. We experience the milk of human kindness in German streets and in some institutions. Never can one compare Germany with Zimbabwe when it comes to human kindness. Chiwenga's cruelty to his ex-wife Merry is an extreme example never to match the two countries.

There is a lot going on in Zimbabwe to speak so blanketly about the lack of UBUNTU in our societies. I dread to read the Bulawayo 24 sometimes: everyday reports of gender-based-violence; the rise of casualties of sexual violence on babies, toddlers, children, young girls, women of all ages. A man was sexually abusing two under-aged girls next door. A daughter and a mother tried to sell a newly born baby to a stranger; a woman was raped in Harare when chasing her debt. Stepfather was abusing her stepdaughter until she got pregnant, Marital sexual intercourse to newlyweds still existed in most societies. The new wife will be told to have sex with the uncle first so to prove her virginity. It is surprising that Zimbabwean men still think they can cure HIV/AIDS by sexual intercourse with virgins, hence they target even babies for cure.

A grandfather sexually abused his granddaughter; A teacher was caught sexually abusing a form one girl who came for extra lessons in his house. A man stole a toddler and sold it for ritual killings in Botswana to get some body parts to make fortune: the toddler was killed in excruciating circumstances. A stepfather killed a toddler, giving her rat poison, the child died; he did not want to look after her. A desperate under-aged woman threw her newly baby born in the toilet, the baby suffocated and died. Elderly women in rural settings are targeted without mercy. Young boys target fragile elderly women: they think they are HIV/AIDS free. These are daily news we consume in our social media houses in Zimbabwe. How do you possibly speak of UBUNTU as a philosophy under such daily occurrences. The sexual abuse on babies, toddlers, girl children, even boy-children are not spared. Abuse of sexual nature is now a way of life, slowly becoming a culture of rape.

Merry Mubayiwa should never think that we have forgotten her. As activists, we are so constrained, desperate; we don't know how else we can fight her case on her behalf. 16 days of CEDAW gives us the opportunity to spell our frustrations on the media. How many thousands of miles of articles have we written about Merry's case. We have used words that could never even be printed to emphasize her case, to scare politicians playing around with her life. Merry Chiwenga's case is unique: under normal circumstances, Chiwenga must deal with Mnangagwa head on and not Merry. Chiwenga uses his political power to punish Merry by refusing her treatment, whereas others of her elite group get medical treatment abroad. To punish Merry in this manner is an obvious admission that he is a very weak man who is incapable of seeking revenge on Mnangagwa, the main culprit.

So many things have gone wrong in Chiwenga's military and political life. His calculous in the military and political has not been smart. He is spoken about as someone who failed exams on several occasions. He has been on several occasions outsmarted by the fox Mnangagwa; hence he is a frustrated, angry, and dangerous man. What remains, what he can is vent anger on an ill woman, the weakest link. He should realize he will never become the President. Even if Mnangagwa left the scene today, he is going to be outsmarted again by those in the military.

Chiwenga is a man who never passed a single exam in his life "but somehow managed to pass a doctorate degree with a distinction". He has always been catapulted to the top on tribal grounds by his tribesman Mugabe. It disturbs many when rumors suggest a Chiwenga becoming the third dispensation. Zimbabweans must stop hallucinating: even by optimistic calculations, Chiwenga cannot rescue this nation from the economic mess we find ourselves in. Even his doctorate degree will not save us. Much needed is a leadership of technocrats that will rescue a free-falling economy: not the Priest and Advocate Chamisa. #godisinit#.

The 25th of November is a special day remembering the Mirabel sisters from the Dominic Republic who were murdered by the regime of the time. In the same vein, we remember the agony Mrs. Merry Mubayiwa, a naked gender-based-violence. I demonstratively lit a candle and said to myself; I do not need to go faraway places to realize gender-based-violence on women is real; it's here at my home country Zimbabwe.