VICE-PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga is now staying at the Golden Peacock Villa Hotel in Harare owned by Anjin – a joint venture between the Ministry of Defence and a Chinese investor – after he abandoned his matrimonial Borrowdale Brooke mansion that he says holds “sentimental value” to him amid a nasty fallout
with his ex-wife Marry Mubaiwa.
Bridget Mananavire
Chiwenga’s new home is located along Kingsmead Road in Borrowdale in Harare. Even though he managed to evict Marry, with the help of the army, Chiwenga still moved out. Some people initially said he was staying in Chisipite, yet others speculated he was at the National Defence University, but this week The NewsHawks established Chiwenga now resides at the Kingsmead villa for security and personal reasons.
This reinforced the view that he is close to the Chinese who saved his life when he looked terminally ill before being flown to Beijing for treatment last year. It is not the first time for Chiwenga to abandon the Borrowdale Brooke mansion which is perched on a hill with a panoramic view inside Zimbabwe’s prime housing estate on 614 Nick Price Road.
With a screaming inscription C&M (Constantino & Marry), the house stands majestically on a hill facing an 18-hole golf course designed by South African architect Peter Makovitch.
The estate was developed by Zimbabwe’s famous golf legend Nick Price, once Number 1 in the world’s golf rankings.
Initially Chiwenga left the Borrowdale Brooke house, where used to live with his other former wife Jocelyn, in April 2010 to stay with Marry on 11 Rosary Close in Greystone Park suburb also under Borrowdale area.
This time around he went to the Anjin villa. Anjin Investments (Pvt) Ltd is a joint venture between Chinese company Anhui Foreign Economic Construction (Group) Co. Ltd and a Zimbabwean entity Matt Bronze Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd,
owned by the military, founded on December 2009.
The latest move came after Chiwenga evicted his estranged wife Marry with the assistance of the army. Just like in 2014 when he divorced Jocelyn, Chiwenga used armed soldiers to deny Marry access to the mansion, before the
courts granted him the right to occupy the house.
Marry lost control of the house after Chiwenga got her arrested on allegations of attempted murder,
fraud and money laundering in December last year.
She was granted bail on 6 January and told to stay at her matrimonial home, but was denied access to the house by armed soldiers. Chiwenga later challenged the court ruling which gave Marry access to the house on the grounds that the former model was dishonest and did not deserve bail as she had surrendered only one of her three passports to the court, a material fact which the vice-president’s lawyers said had not been disclosed when the judgment was made.
In any case, the lawyers argued, she could not stay with Chiwenga in the same house as he was the
complainant. Chiwenga further said Marry found him staying at the residence in question when they married and
thus she no longer had a legal right to be there following the termination of their customary union.
“Number 614 Nick Price Drive Borrowdale Brooke is my house of sentimental value awarded to me by the High Court in a former divorce matter by the late Justice Andrew Mutema,” Chiwenga said.
“I have no other home.” Locals in the Chinese villa’s vicinity said security has been beefed up since Chiwenga’s moved in. The villa is now fortified. In addition to private security, there are also soldiers guarding the hotel.
Informed sources say Chiwenga is locked in a fierce power struggle with President Emmerson Mnangagwa over Zanu PF’s unresolved leadership question. This has been variously confirmed with many credible sources.
