Zimbabwean Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s mother-in-law, Helga Mubaiwa, has reportedly taken the ruling Zanu-PF party and its national commissar Engelbert Rugeje to court contesting her defeat in the just-ended primary elections.
Helga Mubaiwa
Mubaiwa’s daughter Mary, is married to Chiwenga.
In February, Mubaiwa was introduced to hundreds of villagers by leaders in Manyame rural district in Seke as the next member of parliament. This was after she reportedly helped the area complete the construction of a local clinic and school.
A New Zimbabwe.com report quoted Manyame rural district chairperson, Dickson Mudzara, as saying at the time that Seke was in need of business people like Mubaiwa to contest in elections and represent them in parliament as some politicians had proven to be incompetent after failing to complete the construction of Whealerdale Clinic and St Hughes primary school.
Mubaiwa was, however, defeated by Munyaradzi Kashambe in the recently ended party primaries in Seke.
A News Day report said that Mubaiwa disputed the results, “claiming the polls were marred by a litany of irregularities, which include shambolic voters’ rolls and alleged use of a police bus to transport polling officers and ballot papers”.
Grand chance
The report said that Mubaiwa had since launched an urgent High Court application to block Kashambe from campaigning pending the disposition of her appeal.
In court papers, Mubaiwa, said that she was aggrieved over the outcome of the primary votes.
“For many reasons . . . I was aggrieved by the outcome of the said primary election. And after the result was announced on the night of May 9, 2018, I immediately noted an appeal to the relevant authority. It remains pending,” she was quoted as saying.
“I have no doubt that my said appeal has positive prospects. In fact, there is a grand chance that a rerun may be ordered as a consequence of my said appeal.”
This came amid reports that a number of the ruling Zanu-PF heavyweights fell by the wayside in the party’s primary elections.
Zimbabwe was set to go to the polls before the end of August.
