‘Don’t be surprised if I commit suicide’ – says distraught Mary Mubaiwa

Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s estranged wife Mary Mubaiwa said her pain of not seeing her children for more than three years and not being allowed to travel outside the country to seek medical care sometimes create “thoughts of committing suicide – and don’t be surprised if I do”.

“Especially not seeing my children is very painful to me. Sometimes I start having thoughts of committing suicide and don’t be surprised if I do. I have not spoken to my kids and I have not seen them since 2019,” she said in an interview with Pindai Dube For The Sunday Times (SA).

Mubaiwa, who had her arm amputated a few weeks ago after a court forbade her from travelling to South Africa for medical treatment, said she is living in great pain due to being alienated from her children.

Mubaiwa and Chiwenga got married in 2011 under traditional rites. They have two sons and a daughter.

The marriage collapsed in 2019 when she was arrested for allegedly disconnecting the former Army General’s life-support machine while he was receiving treatment in a South African hospital.

She was acquitted by a Harare magistrate last week on charges of assaulting her children’s nanny.

Mubaiwa told the Sunday Times that she is living an unhappy life.

“I spent nights and days crying, asking God: ‘Why did you let this happen to me?’ Everything I am accused of, I didn’t do it”

“I am not well at all and I feel that if I had gone out of the country to seek better treatment I would be better, but the court refused to give me my passport as part of bail conditions,” she said.

The former model added: “Especially not seeing my children is very painful to me. Sometimes I start having thoughts of committing suicide and don’t be surprised [if I do]. I have not spoken to my kids and I have not seen them since 2019.

“In a couple of days, it will be my daughter and my son’s birthdays. I have not spoken to them even over the phone.

“My lawyers have written to (Chiwenga’s) lawyers many times for me to get access to my children but that has not helped.”

She added that her children had nothing to do with her dispute with Chiwenga and she was supposed to get access to them.

“Our children have nothing to do with what is happening between us … These are young children. I always ask myself what he says to them about me. These are kids who need their mother.”

She maintains that she is innocent.

“I spent nights and days crying, asking God: ‘Why did you let this happen to me?’ Everything I am accused of, I didn’t do it,” she said.

“Right now, I am so sick. I am having challenges with my legs that are swollen and so painful and the doctors told me after the amputation of my right arm that my body has too much fluid.

“I stay at my parents’ home because I have nothing. I don’t have a house and even a car, so I am under my parents’ care. I have a well-equipped clinic which I had built from my personal funds in Domboshava (outside Harare) but I was blocked from accessing it,” Mubaiwa said