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.”
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. Zimlive
