Australia-based Zimbabwean socialite Susan Mutami on Friday repeated her claims that she was sexually abused by President Emmerson Mnangagwa several times from the time she was only 15 and in Form Three.
Mutami further claimed she was sexually abused by Mnangagwa’s political ally Owen “Mudha” Ncube.
She narrated claims of abuse by Mnangagwa mainly in Shona in a four-hour Twitter Spaces that she hosted on Friday.
Twitter Spaces is a feature on the microblogging site that allows users to have live open and unfiltered audio discussions or any and every topic and conversation.
It was listened to by more than 13 000 audience members, an audience enough to fill an average small stadium in Zimbabwe, such as White City, Sakubva or Mucheke, reported The NewsHawks. Said Mutami:
I met Mnangagwa during a sports gala, where he was a guest of honour. He was driving a green Jeep and greeted me as his niece. I did not want to humiliate him, so I played along.
He then said ‘when you close schools come to the party office and see me. Just say you want to see sekuru when you get there’.
Mutami said she did not visit him during those holidays, only to later meet him by chance. She said:
In 2004 when I was in Form 3, I bumped into him again at Wimpy in Kwekwe. He asked why I didn’t come to see him.
He went further to ask if my fees had been paid in full view of all people who were there.
He gave me two million dollars in bearers’ cheques, which at the time was what teachers were earning. He was in the company of his long-serving aide, Temias Shumba.
. . . The next time that I met him, he was in a car and he showed me his privates and asked me if I knew what it was.
He said ‘chinonzi chinhu chadaddy’ (this is daddy’s stuff). We were in the car; he used to drive himself so he asked me to touch his penis. It was the third time I was meeting him.
In 2004, during the second term holidays, we bumped into each other again. Those who know Mnangagwa know that he used to hang out at Golden Mile Hotel with the likes of July Moyo.
He took me to Golden Mile Hotel. I was so innocent at the time and did not think he would do anything to harm me.
That is when he slept with me. I did not tell anyone. He actually raped me because I did not consent to it.
He insisted that he would only do it once or twice. He did exactly that and the next thing I had blood all over.
He said you are now a grown woman you can no longer play with boys because you will fall pregnant.
Mutami said she didn’t speak about the abuse for many years as she feared being judged and retribution. She said:
All of Mnangagwa’s colleagues like July Moyo and security aides knew of the abuse.
Mutami said that when her father died in a car accident on 24 May 2005 when she was in Form 4.
She said her mother then enrolled at Morgenster to upgrade her nursing qualifications, while her siblings enrolled at boarding schools.
Now that she was left alone, Mnangagwa offered to pay her fees and asked her to move to his Sherwood Farm in Kwekwe, she claimed.
Mutami said at the farm, Mnangagwa continued to sexually abuse her, although he was allegedly also in a sexual relationship with his accountant, who was also staying at the farm. She said:
[First Lady] Auxillia [Mnangagwa] did not like the fact that ED was helping me with school fees and I didn’t tell her that there was something going on.
So she was so mean and rude. One day she spilled water onto the bed where I slept with the maid at 2 AM, and she asked us to wake up and clean the house at that time and we woke up to do that with the maid.
She once beat me up asking who between ED and Shumba (his aide) I was sleeping with. I was in so much fear and I couldn’t say anything.
She brought out a gun and told me that she was once a CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) and could kill me. I was only 16.
Mutami said the sexual abuse continued even after she had left the country for Australia. She said:
Whenever I came back from Australia, ED would book me at Meikles. The first time (upon my return) he wanted to sleep with me, I asked for protection because of the grapevine of his HIV infection.
He left the room unhappy after asking me where I got the audacity to ask him for protection.
Contacted for comment by The NewsHawks on these various and serious allegations, Presidential spokesperson George Charamba, said this was mere, gossip. Said Charamba:
We do not deal with rumours at the President’s office. I have nothing more to hide.
More: The NewsHawks