Muchinguri denies dating Chimbetu or cat-fighting Grace Mugabe

HARARE – Women’s Affairs minister Oppah Muchinguri has denied long standing rumours that she dated dendera music icon Simon Chimbetu or that she was once involved in a cat fight with the First Lady Grace Mugabe, over earrings. 

Muchinguri stunned participants at a meeting organised by the Women in Politics Support Unit (Wipsu) when she said “People say I dated Chimbetu, but where would I have seen him, he was not on my level?”

She also sought to clear another popular rumour telling guests “Some said Muchinguri fought with the first lady over earrings. Such stories are not true.”

The first rumour about Chimbetu was fuelled by the late musician’s song “Oppah” in which he sang “beyond those mountains, Manica Valley, there is a mushroomed African Village, there is Oppah an African girl, she is like an angel sent for me.”

It has also been claimed that Muchinguri had an affair with President Mugabe that culminated in an altercation with the First Lady at the Harare International Airport.

Grace Mugabe allegedly confronted Muchinguri over earrings bought for her by the President. The First Lady is then said to have ordered her off the plane.

According to Muchinguri the situation was not helped when she divorced her first husband, Tapiwa Rushesha.

During the acrimonious divorce and child custody proceedings, Rushesha told the courts that he had been upset that Mugabe often sent his bodyguards to pick up his wife for “meetings” in the middle of the night.

“We need to change our attitudes. Why do you believe in such stories? I have developed thick skin and you also need to develop it if you are to survive in politics,” Muchinguri said this week.