A group of family members and relatives of Chief Fortune Charumbira have reportedly claimed a deep-seated family feud and a protracted chieftainship wrangle could be behind allegations of sexual assault levelled against the traditional leader.
Charumbira, who is the president of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) and the president of the Chiefs Council, is accused of indecently assaulting a married woman who is said to be his niece early this year.
The group of family members and relatives have written a document in Chief Charumbira’s defence which they say will be filed with the police.
In the document that has been leaked to The Standard, the family said after investigating events surrounding the allegations against Charumbira, indications were that there is an attempt to destroy his career. Part of the document reads:
Charumbira’s accuser is a distant fifth-generation questionable niece and there are murky family roots between the pair.
The relationship between the pair cannot be traced to the great Charumbira progenitors, Mudavanhu and Chainda who are widely known to be the great ancestors of the Sipambi clan with Chief Charumbira being the two progenitors’ direct descendant.
Charumbira’s family further alleged that the victim’s family is working with a prominent South African businesswoman and a former MP in Botswana (name withheld) to topple Charumbira from his post at PAP using the alleged sexual assault case. Reads the document:
They wanted to replace Charumbira with one of the four PAP vice presidents, (name supplied), who is also a close ally of the SA businesswoman.
We have information that the victim’s family has created a WhatsApp group titled “Sky Media 206” and has also created a fake Twitter account to coordinate the hysteric attacks against Charumbira.
The family also claimed that before the reported sexual assault incident in March, an unnamed woman in Masvingo was approached by Charumbira’s rivals to make sexual advances to him and to take his nude pictures in return for a house and a car. Reads the document:
It has emerged that these are the same people who, after failing in their initial attempt, engineered this recent sexual assault case.
Her (the victim’s) father was at one time a campaign manager of one of Charumbira’s known political nemesis in Masvingo West and that does not escape us as a possible motive to destroy the chief.
The father is also involved in the chieftainship wrangles pitting Charumbira and his foes that are out to dethrone him.
The victim’s mother (name withheld), a school headmistress also in Masvingo Province, has been very inactive in the case, a situation that raises eyebrows.
According to a leaked police memorandum, Charumbira allegedly sexually assaulted the complainant on two separate occasions.
He allegedly fondled the complainant’s breasts, kissed her without her consent, and groped her private parts.
The alleged assault took place at Rainbow Towers Hotel on 31 March this year and on 02 April at Crown Plaza Hotel, respectively.
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