Marry Mubaiwa, the ex-wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga will be appealing her conviction for marriage fraud by a Harare magistrate, her lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has said.
Mubaiwa was found guilty of contravening the Marriage Act after she tried to upgrade her customary union with Chiwenga without his consent.
She had claimed Chiwenga had agreed to formalise their union while he was hospitalised in India.
Mtetwa said in convicting Mubaiwa, magistrate Lanzini Ncube ignored their submissions and said he came “up with a case of his own in passing judgement”. Said Mtetwa:
My view is that the conviction is a bad conviction, we have already prepared our notice of appeal and grounds of appeal.
The Magistrate ignored every submission we made, all the contradictions in the state’s case and he created a new case of his own completely not based on what the charge sheet says, so we are appealing.
Mubaiwa was given an option to pay ZWL$60 000 or go to jail for six months.
The magistrate ruled she was not in good health to go to jail or perform hours of community service.
He also said Mubaiwa deserves a second chance since she is a first time offender.
Mubaiwa has several other charges pending before the courts including fraud, attempted murder and assault.