VICE-PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga has settled down with army Colonel Miniyothabo Baloyi after an acrimonious divorce with former model Marry Mubaiwa, it has emerged.
In a leaked video seen by NewsDay, Chiwenga is seen being interviewed by a Zimbabwe Statistical Agency enumerator and the VP — who doubles as Health and Child Care minister, is heard informing the enumerator that he was currently staying with Baloyi, referring to her as his spouse.
“I am staying here with my spouse, Baloyi and the children,” Chiwenga said when asked who had slept at his home on census night (April 20, 2022).
Colonel Miniyothabo Baloyi
Sources told NewsDay that the army colonel was one of the few people who were allowed to visit Chiwenga when he was hospitalised in China.
“The relationship has been going well, number two (Chiwenga) really trusts Baloyi and that is why she was allowed to visit him in China. They have been staying together for a while,” the source said.
Originally from Nkayi, the 46-year-old Baloyi is said to be one of the sharp minds in the Zimbabwean National Army. She holds a Doctorate in Business Studies from the Midlands State University and two masters degrees from the University of Zimbabwe and the Midlands State University. She speaks six languages including Mandarin, French and Zulu, among others.
Chiwenga’s union with Baloyi is the third in 15 years following his much-publicised splits with Mubaiwa and Jocelyn Mauchaza.
In 2011, Mubaiwa customarily married Chiwenga amid revelations that the two had been staying together after the former army boss left his matrimonial home in April 2010 during his marriage with Mauchaza.
It was reported that he paid US$47 000 as bride price for Marry to the Mubaiwa family.
In 2019, High Court judge Justice Owen Tagu ruled that Mubaiwa’s marriage to Chiwenga was over because he legally divorced her when he sent retired Lieutenant General Anselem Sanyatwe to give her US$100 as a divorce token.
The High Court ruling came after Mubaiwa challenged Chiwenga’s divorce petition which was filed in December 2019.
In response, Marry insisted that their customary marriage still subsisted because Chiwenga failed to follow cultural protocol to terminate the marriage. She further argued that she never got a divorce token because of the failure to follow protocol. She, however, conceded that Chiwenga sent Sanyatwe to give her a divorce token. She further argued that she refused to accept the divorce token because it was in United States dollars and not local currency.
Following Marry’s insistence, Chiwenga made an application in November 2021 pleading with the court to issue an order declaring the customary union as having been terminated.
The High Court judge dismissed Mubaiwa’s claims that she had not received the divorce token. Justice Tagu ruled that the marriage was terminated when Chiwenga sent Sanyatwe with the divorce token on November 24, 2019.
In April this year, Marry was convicted of contravening the Marriages Act after the court ruled that she forged Chiwenga’s signature on the marriage certificate. She still has other pending cases before the courts in which Chiwenga accuses her of attempted murder, fraud and money-laundering.
Chiwenga’s 12-year marriage to Jocelyn crumbled in 2010 after it emerged in court papers that the former army general was at the mercy of the former wife, who had a fiery temper.
Jocelyn used to shop with an entourage of soldiers to push the poor out of the way — and once shouted at the late former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who was the leader of the opposition MDC-T party threatening to “take his manhood” when she spotted him on the streets.
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