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Nyore Madzianike Senior Court Reporter

Marry Mubaiwa was yesterday brought to court in an ambulance, carried into the building on a stretcher and then pushed into the courtroom on a wheelchair while on an intravenous injection, after a warrant of arrest was issued against her for failing to attend a court remand hearing on charges of attempted murder and externalising foreign currency.

Magistrate Mr Ngoni Nduna issued a warrant of arrest during a mid-morning hearing on the application by the State, although Mubaiwa’s lawyer, Ms Beatrice Mtetwa, said she was unable to be present for health reasons.

After her dramatic appearance in the afternoon before another magistrate, the warrant of arrest was cancelled.

Mubaiwa is accused of attempting to kill VP Constantino Chiwenga when he was admitted in hospital in South Africa and externalising foreign currency. In the morning session, Ms Mtetwa explained her client’s absence: “She is not feeling well and she is at her house. She cannot come to court.”

The State, led by Mrs Netsai Mushayabasa, applied for the warrant of arrest.

Ms Mtetwa then applied to be allowed to hire an ambulance to ferry Mubaiwa to court and returned with her in an ambulance at around 2pm.

Mubaiwa was then placed in a wheelchair and taken into the courtroom with two paramedics assisting her. Ms Mtetwa applied for the cancellation of the warrant of arrest, which Mrs Mushayabasa did not oppose on the grounds of Mubaiwa’s ill-health.

Mrs Mushayabasa then suggested that the matter involving attempted murder and money laundering be postponed to 28 January next year since investigations were still underway.

“There are extra-terrestrial investigations that have to be made and this is difficult in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.