Sick Chiwenga flown to China, but estranged wife still desperate in Zim

By Nyashadzashe Ndoro | Nehanda Politics |

Vice President Constantino Chiwenga has been flown to China for special treatment despite the fact that he had banned foreign health travels when he was appointed health minister.

A government source told ZimLive that: “He was very unwell at the end of November, and he cut back on his public appearances. A decision was taken to fly him out to seek treatment.”

However, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesman, George Charamba, confirmed Chiwenga was out of the country but insisted that he was on a “state assignment.”

He declined to name the country.

Chiwenga, is a retired military general who masterminded the coup that brought the late Robert Mugabe’s rule to a dramatic end in November 2017.

His estranged wife, Mary Mubaiwa 39, who is sustaining bore lesions and severely swollen arms also wants to travel out of the country to receive treatment but her passport has been confiscated by the court because she is on bail facing attempted murder, money laundering and assault charges.

Her doctors said she has “severe lymphoedema and spontaneous formation of abscesses whose origins have not been determined.”

Recently, Chiwenga told the media during a post cabinet briefing that government officials would not travel outside the country to seek treatment.

“We will not export our patients. We will not make referrals (to foreign medical facilities) for our patients. It’s everybody.

“Ministers are only about 20 but those who have been going out it’s you, you, me, altogether. That export bill was too high and that’s what we want to curtail.

“We want to do away with that, and it requires us to carry out restructuring from the village health worker right up to the quaternary hospital,” he said. Nehanda Radio