Own Correspondent|Marry Chiwenga who was arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission on Saturday must be the most dramatic person in the country at the moment.
Former wife to footballer Shingi Kaondera, Marry, is caught up in two situations where she is in both accused of forging signatures in order to sort out her marriages to the two men.
Marry first has to defend a $700,000 damages claim filed by her ex-husband Kaondera, who accuses her of forging his signature and deceiving a court to grant her a divorce.
The couple’s divorce was finalised in May 2011, just weeks before Marry, nee Mubaiwa, was customarily married to Chiwenga, then the commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
Kaondera now says Chiwenga’s marriage to Marry should never have happened because she obtained the divorce through deception.
The former national team midfielder said in his damages claim filed on July 15 that he was never served with divorce summons. His lawyers said he was in Cyprus at the time.
Marry, according to Kaondera, “fraudulently caused a return of service to be issued by the Deputy Sherriff at Harare falsely claiming that plaintiff (Kaondera) had been personally served with the summons on the 22nd of June at Harare.”
“Further to that, defendant also fraudulently issued the Honourable Court a consent paper dated 7th July 2010 wherein the plaintiff’s signature was forged. Plaintiff never entered into a consent paper with the defendant regarding the divorce proceedings,” Kaondera’s lawyers said.
They said Marry had also submitted before a judge “an affidavit of waiver which purported to have been deposed by the plaintiff.” The signatures, the lawyers said, were forged.
In her latest saga, where she has had to spend a night in police cells, the Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission is charging Marry Chiwenga with misrepresentation saying she approached the Judge President George Chiweshe & said her husband wanted a marriage officer to solemnise their marriage and purportedly forged his signature.
Chiwenga and Marry have been living separately after the Vice-President moved into another house on arrival from China, where he was hospitalised for four months, before staging a remarkable recovery.
Chiwenga and Mary are reported to have crossed swords after the latter asked for a Marriage Act (Chapter 5:11) union as the 63-year-old battled for his life in a Pretoria hospital. Chiwenga customarily married Mary in 2011 when he paid a whopping US$47 000 as the bride price, but the couple were yet to solemnize the marriage under the country’s Marriage Act Chapter 5:11.