Marry Chiwenga  prosecution reveals a toxic cocktail of corruption, misogyny and abuse of office

It is unconscionable what the government is doing to pensioners. NSSA pensions are decided after consultation with Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube.

The $80 pensioners’ salaries were originally US dollar salaries. With the coming of the bond note, they were pegged at a rate of 1:1 against the US dollar. But on 20 February 2019, Reserve Bank Governor John Mangudya decided to change the local currency to what he named the RTGS dollar and its rate against the USD was to be determined by the markets.

They, however, did not adjust salaries to the new rate.

What this means is according to today’s rates of US$1: RTGS20, a pensioner earning $200 should in fact be earning RTGS4 000 or R4 000. The government, through the Reserve Bank, came up with a policy that changed the currency, but did not adjust people’s bank balances and salaries in line with the new rates. This is criminal.

As this injustice is occurring, the trial of Priscah Mupfumira, a former tourism minister, who was arrested on 25 July 2019 over the US$95-million NSSA scandal has been postponed after she was declared “too depressed” to stand trial.

How depressed are her victims, one wonders.

Now, in a country where pensioners spend four nights sleeping outside banks to access less than US$5/day, Marry Chiwenga, the wife of Zimbabwe’s Vice President Constantine Chiwenga, is accused of having externalised US$1-million to South Africa and China.

Everything about this case stinks.

It is a cocktail of corruption, misogyny and abuse of office. Marry Chiwenga’s husband is accusing her of all these crimes, and that husband is the vice president.

He has managed to get the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) embroiled in his marital issues, showing us the extent to which institutions in Zimbabwe are under the influence of politicians.

Not only did the vice president manage to get the ZAAC to investigate his wife, he also got the police to arrest and detain her, and who is to say it was not him that ordered the magistrate to remand her in custody?

This is a clear case of abuse of authority. Where does this influence over the judiciary, armed forces and other state institutions start and where does it end?

Let’s be clear, Marry Chiwenga is no angel. In 2018, she sent someone to “talk to me” about my social media posts which she felt painted her and ZANU-PF in a bad light. She advised me to stand down and rather take it from her than have the soldiers pay me a visit.

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