by Staff Reporter
THE nasty fight between Zimbabwe National Army commander, General Constantine Chiwenga , and his ex-wife , Jocelyn Chiwenga (nee Mauchaza), over assets—itself a spill-over from a nasty divorce—has reached the Supreme Court, www.pazimbabwe.com can exclusively reveal.
Although intimate details of the case could not be easily obtained this week since the High Court imposed a blanket black-out on the case “for security reasons” after embarrassing started emerged at the beginning of the protracted court proceedings that Chiwenga—who is overall commander of Zimbabwe’s estimated 30 000 strong army—had told the court of how he used to be beaten to pulp by her violent ex-wife , it is however understood that Jocelyn is fighting the army general over assets.
Jocelyn was last year violently evicted by heavily armed members of the Presidential Guard and police from the couple’s farm in Goromonzi as well as from the family’s mansion in the Borrowdale Brooke, an enclave for Zimbabwe’s rich and famous. She threatened to sue the general for US$40 million for marrying another wife while their marriage still subsisted.
The Supreme Court case (Number451/14) is before Justices Vernanda Ziyambi, Anne-Mary Gowora and Bharat Patel and was heard for the first time on July 27. The Supreme Court sits more several times to hear a case.
After her eviction at Dockson Farm in Goromonzi in September last year, Jocelyn went on to be ejected from the family’s mansion in Borrowdale Brooke amid claims that she was on the receiving end of threatening phone calls from unknown people.
“I feel so good because God has shown me the way to keep quiet and follow the law. I feel so good. I don’t have confidence in the judge who sat on our case but I feel good with all the judges. I am proud of who I am and what I have achieved in life,” she told The Standard, a local weekly, last year.
“In future I will write a book about my life under the arm of an abusive General,” she said.
“I regret ever marrying Chiwenga. If I had known he was an abusive husband like this, I would not have married him. I don’t care now, I am out of his system,” she said. “I married him against my relatives’ advice, but love is blind”, said the ex-wife.
Chiwenga reportedly moved from the troubled matrimonial home in April of 2010 and filed for divorce in 2012, which divorce was granted by the High Court last year under wraps as it was feared it could open a can of worms.
Since 2002, the couple used to live at the spacious, uphill Borrowdale Brooke mansion, next to President Robert Mugabe’s home.
The two were married in November 1998 before the marriage broke down in 2012 when Chiwenga filed for divorce citing ex-wife Jocelyn’s alleged violent behaviour. Jocelyn once attacked MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai after she bumped into him while he was shopping at an upmarket supermarket in Harare.
The army boss is now customarily married to Mary Mubaiwa, an ex-model who is former wife to ex-Zimbabwe national soccer team player, Shingirai Kawondera.
Those that claim to know Chiwenga’s ex-wife Jocelyn say she was once a waitress at Jobs Night Club in Harare. She changed her name to Jocelyn Jacobsen after she married a Danish national whose safety clothing firm it was reported she later seized with the help of Chiwenga before the two got joined in “holy” matrimony in 1998. It is claimed that Jocelyn grabbed Chiwenga from one of her best friends, Hazvinei, after she dumped Jacobsen.