The former wife of Zimbabwe’s vice-president has been freed from remand after seven years while on trial for his attempted murder.
Marry Mubaiwa was charged in 2019, after her then husband Gen Constantino Chiwenga accused her of trying to impede his medical treatment in South Africa.
Ordering her release, a magistrate said Mubaiwa had suffered mental, physical and financial prejudice during the trial, state-owned daily the Herald said.
The ruling was made after the state asked for the trial to be postponed by a month in order to engage witnesses.
Her lawyer described the ruling as a victory that had come too late, because her client’s rights had been violated by the delay in the trial.
The Marry Mubaiwa 7-year trial on attempted murder has collapsed and she is now a free woman.
Video Credit @zimlive https://t.co/d2IFm2azUd
— Gerrard Anko Ged Belts (@MacBelts) October 27, 2026
Speaking outside court in the capital Harare on Tuesday, the lawyer added that if the state moved for a new trial, they would deal with it when it happened.
Mubaiwa was accused of attempting to kill Chiwenga, while he was in hospital in Pretoria. The vice-president then went to China for four months of treatment.
Mubaiwa was remanded in custody and denied bail.
According to the New Zimbabwe news website, Mubaiwa celebrated her release outside court, and said justice had been achieved and that she was proud of her lawyer.
In 2017, Chiwenga played a key role in overthrowing then President Robert Mugabe.
📹 Lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa speaks outside the Harare Magistrates Court after a magistrate removed her client Marry Mubaiwa from remand after a nearly seven-year battle to clear her name on charges of attempting to kill her ex-husband, vice president Constantino Chiwenga https://t.co/qShdWQEUKA
— ZimLive (@zimlive) October 28, 2026
This is a misreading of what happened at the Harare Magistrates Court today. Marry Mubaiwa, the former wife of Zimbabwe’s Vice President, previously known as Marry Chiwenga, was not acquitted.
The trial magistrate, Feresi Chakanyuka, was promoted from the Magistrates Court to the High Court in August, where she now sits as a judge. Because of her elevation, she could not continue presiding over the trial, and the State was required to find a new magistrate and start the case afresh.
Instead of moving the case forward, the State asked for yet another postponement, telling the court it needed more time to locate witnesses and reissue summonses.
Mubaiwa’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, opposed the application on several grounds. She told the court that even before Chakanyuka was elevated, the State had spent 22 months seeking postponements because the complainant was not available, something the defence had objected to throughout.
She argued that the State had been given since August, when Chakanyuka was appointed to the High Court, to put its house in order, and had failed to do so. She also reminded the court that the defence had given formal notice that it would oppose any further postponement if the State was not ready for trial by 21 October.
Mtetwa further pointed out that although Mubaiwa was arrested in December 2019, the trial only began in February 2023, meaning the total delay in the case now stands at seven years.
The magistrate refused to postpone the matter any further, and Mubaiwa was removed from remand. That is all that happened.
The charges have not gone away. If the State gets its case in order, it can still reinstate the charge and summon Mubaiwa back to court, although the defence has made it clear that it would challenge any such move.
The headlines claiming she was acquitted are therefore wrong. An acquittal comes only through a judgment, and no judgment has been delivered. The trial, which has dragged on for seven years, stalled when the presiding magistrate was promoted, and it has never been concluded. That is the correct position.
— Hopewell Chin’ono (@daddyhope) October 27, 2026
