Learnmore Jongwe controversy re-ignited

The desolate tranquility of a cemetery in Masvingo, where Rutendo’s remains are interred, and the white lilies and roses laid for her there, does nothing to soften Munyaradzi’s anger and sadness on the seventh anniversary of his sister’s tragic violent death at the age of 23, allegedly at the hands of Jongwe. ?

The former MDC spokesman was arrested in July 2002 and charged with murdering his wife. Jongwe admitted stabbing Rutendo during a domestic row but denied intending to kill her. He reportedly tried to commit suicide after his wife’s death but was eventually persuaded to give himself up to the police. ?

His body was found in his cell at Harare’s Chikurubi Maximum Security prison on October 24, 2002. It was reported that he suspected his wife of infidelity and during a row, stabbed her eight times with a kitchen knife, an assertion furiously denied by Rutendo’s brother last weekend. ?

The family accuse Jongwe’s lawyer Jonathan Samkange of cooking up the infidelity story in Jongwe’s defence, with Munyaradzi insisting that it was the former MDC politician who was, in fact, an unfaithful husband who regularly assaulted his wife and was a well-known kerb-crawler in the city.

Rutendo was a final-year law student at the University of Zimbabwe, where she met Jongwe while he was also studying law. Jongwe, who was 28 when he died, was a student leader at the UZ. ?

At the time of Rutendo’ death, the couple had a 10-month-old child, Tawana, who is now attending Victoria Primary School in Masvingo. The family says there has not been much support for little Tawana, and only singled out current MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa as regularly offering a helping hand. ?

Jongwe Foundation

Former student leaders who worked with Jongwe at the UZ, Takura Zhangazha, Pedzisai Ruhanya, Daniel Molokele and Charlton Hwende, last Friday launched a foundation in honour of the late MDC spokesman, stirring bitterness among Rutendo’s family and friends, while delighting many others who admired Jongwe, who was one of the MDCs most promising young talents.

Rutendos brother told The Zimbabwean on Tuesday that attempts by the four student leaders to immortalise Jongwe had revived bitter memories of his sister’s gruesome murder. ? “If they want to honour him for his politics, its all fine with me but you should tell the world exactly what kind of man he was at home with his family,” Munyaradzi said: “The story of Rutendo’s unfaithfulness was made up by Jongwe’s lawyer Samkange to try to get him out of the mess.”?

But Samkange, stuck to his the story that Jongwe walked into an office at a Harare law firm and found his wife engaged in sexual act with another man was true.?

According to the lawyer, Jongwe’s mother had come to visit the young couple in Harare from her Zhombe rural home. On the fateful day, Jongwe had driven home with his wife during lunch hour. He expected her to remain at home with his mother, but she insisted on going to Muswe and Associates, a law firm in Harare. ?

A better man

According to Samkange, Rutendo took ages to return home, prompting her husband to follow her to the law firm. ?”Jongwe walked into the lawyer’s office and found her having sex,” Samkange said. “He was shocked and rushed back into the car and drove away.”?

Later on at night, according to Samkange, “Jongwe confronted the wife and she told him ‘He is a better man than you and you ought to be doing what he was doing.’ In a fit of rage, he stood up and stabbed her. That is how it is.”

After stabbing his wife, Jongwe drove to his Zhombe rural home while police cast a dragnet around the country, looking for him. The lawyer claimed that doctors who attended to Rutendo were rather sloppy and could have saved her had they been more efficient. But he did not give reasons why he believed the doctors did not do enough to save Rutendo.

Culpable homicide

However Samkange insisted that even with the death of Rutendo his client would not have been convicted of murder had he stood trial. “There was sufficient provocation,” the top lawyer said. “Most men would go beserk. I could see a court convicting him of culpable homicide not murder.”?

Samkange said after he was retained as Jongwes legal counsel by the former MDC spokesmans friends he immediately arranged for his (Jongwe)s safe passage back to Harare. He said he spoke to Jongwe by phone and advised him to be at his Harare home by morning the following day.

After getting assurances from Jongwe that he would return to Harare, Samkange met with the investigating police officer, an Inspector Muchemwa, and advised him to arrange for roadblocks that had been put up by police looking for Jongwe to be dismantled so the accused could get back to Harare without incident.

“At 6:45am the following day, Jongwe arrived at my home and we drove to the police station,” Samkange said. “From there onwards, he never had discussions with other people.” ? But Rutendo’s brother refuted Samkange’s assertions and insisted Jongwe had all the intentions to kill his sister. ?”He had promised to kill her if she broke up with him, and she was in the process of divorcing him,” Munyaradzi said.

“How do you stab someone eight times and say you have no intention to kill. That is b****it. Where was he stabbing? He stabbed her in the heart, on the jugular vein. That looks like somebody who knew exactly what he was doing,” said Munyaradzi, the seven years since his sisters death apparently to short to have had any soothing effect on his anger at her murderer.

A distraught Munyaradzi added: “My mum raised my sister well. Tell the world the truth, they deserve the truth please.” ?

Suspicious death

Meanwhile Samkange said there was need to probe Jongwe’s suspicious death in remand prison, which some observers believe was an assassination. An independent pathologist concluded he died of excessive intake of chloroquine tablets.

“Did the prison doctor administer those drugs?” Samkange asked. “The hospital was there and operating. How did that happen? How did tablets get into cells? All food is inspected (before being given to inmates). So how did those tablets go in? Who smuggled them and why was that person allowed to smuggle them in? What was the motive of that person?”?

He said it was unfortunate the Jongwe family did not make a formal complaint with police for a full probe into the circumstances surrounding his death. ?”That I could do on their instruction but I could not initiate it myself,” Samkange told The Zimbabwean On Tuesday. ?Describing Jongwe as a man dedicated to his wife, Samkange said: “He loved his wife very much. Even when he died, he had his wife’s picture. That is what hurt him most, the betrayal.”?

Samkange said he refused to accept Jongwe’s vehicle as settlement for his lawyer’s fees. ? “As far as I am concerned, it was national service,” he said. “Jongwe was an intelligent young man. I was thoroughly impressed by that young man. It was a loss to Africa as a whole. Its very unfair to say he was a bad person. He had a good cause.” But that it is a point Samkange or Jongwes friends will certainly find impossible to sell to the Muusha family.