By Patience Nyangove
Jocelyn Chiwenga, the estranged wife to commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantine Chiwenga, claims she fears for her life since her marriage to the commander collapsed over a year ago.
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview held on Friday at her Zimsafe offices in Willowvale, Jocelyn bared her soul as she opened up on how, over the years, she has been subjected to physical and emotional abuse by her husband.
“Why can’t he tell the nation that he used to beat me up and then send me to Malaysia for treatment? After that he told people I am the one who used to abuse him. How can one claim I abused a trained soldier?
“I could not report to the police because he would threaten to shoot me. I know these are serious allegations I am making but I was threatened that if I made a report I would be killed but now I have made peace with my God and I am not scared to die.
“If anything bad happens to The Standard newspaper journalists and me after the publication of this story, because I am telling the truth, the nation should know it came from his (Chiwenga’s) office.
“Right now, as we speak, I have soldiers living in my garden, peeing in my swimming pool. He put them there and I have to make a court application to get them out,” she said.
Jocelyn said since Chiwenga moved from their Borrowdale Brooke home and went to stay at number 5 Rosary Road, Greystone Park some 19 months ago, she has had to live with threats and harassment from him.
“I have been harassed left, right and centre by Chiwenga and I feel the nation has to know that if anything happens to me, it’s him. But I don’t fear him, I only fear God.
“He walked out on me and never communicated with me until I saw that newspaper article last month saying he had married a 28-year-old woman, maybe he wanted to spite me. I must say I was so embarrassed for him, how can he sleep with a girl old enough to be his own daughter?
Jocelyn also accused Chiwenga of bigamy after the defence chief recently married Mary Mubaiwa, former wife to footballer Shingi Kawondera while still legally married to her.
Jocelyn and Chiwenga were married on November 1998 under Chapter 37, now Chapter 5.11. “I am still legally married to him because as far as I know, I have never signed any divorce papers, unless he has had someone sign the papers for me, go check at the courts, our marriage is still valid.
“He is not by law supposed to marry another woman until we are legally divorced but he is abusing the law.” Jocelyn spoke about an incident that happened early this year at her Shamva farm where Chiwenga’s aide in the company of one Colonel (names given) and another soldier, a trained sniper, allegedly came to her farm around 11pm to harass her. She said she was fortunately not there.
Asked why she had not opened up before about the alleged abuse, Jocelyn said she had kept quiet because she didn’t want to tarnish Chiwenga’s image and embarrass President Robert Mugabe.
She claims almost two years after Chiwenga walked out of their matrimonial home, her efforts to have him take his “things” together with his clothes that he left had yielded no results.
According to Jocelyn, her lawyers, Gill, Godlonton and Gerrans have written several letters to Chiwenga through his lawyers Scanlen and Holderness since April last year when Chiwenga ditched her that have never been replied to.
She added that efforts to meet with Chief Marange, her relative, to finalise the divorce have failed to yield any results after Chiwenga, on six different occasions, allegedly turned them down.
Jocelyn accused Chiwenga of trying to “grab” her businesses and the Borrowdale Brooke house from her. “He wants to take everything from me, even the white house on the hill (Borrowdale Brooke), maybe he had told his young wife that they are his properties. He forgets that when we married I already had some of my businesses running,” she said. Zimbabwe Standard
