FORMER Education Minister and Mashonaland East Governor Cde Aeneas Chigwedere is being sued by his son for allegedly practising witchcraft and possessing goblins that have reportedly terrorised the whole clan.
According to papers filed at the Harare Civil Courts by his son Magwiza Chigwedere yesterday, Cde Chigwedere is alleged to have caused untold suffering to his children and the extended family.
Also being sued is Cde Chigwedere’s wife Emilia Zharare Chigwedere – stepmother to Magwiza.
The Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (Zinatha) has also been cited as third respondent.
Magwiza wants Zinatha to use its expertise to rid the family of the goblins.
“This is an application Applicant makes against the respondents in terms of Sections 97 (a) (1), 98 (2) of Chapter V of the Code and Sections 16 (1), 19 (1), 2 (c), 3 (b) (ii) and 20 (1) (e), Section 83 (b)(c) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.20) Act 2013 for indulging in non natural and uncultural practices to instill fear in family members, cause injury and or death, cause disease and or disability and condemn the said family members to abject poverty.
“The facts I depose of to hereunder are to the best of my knowledge true and correct reflections of what has transpired and still transpires,” said Magwiza in his founding affidavit.
He accused his father and stepmother of possessing goblins which they allegedly unleash on other family members.
Magwiza alleges the victims are fleeing Hwedza to seek refuge elsewhere.
“First and second respondents – Aeneas Chigwedere and Emilia Zharare Chigwedere – possess goblins which have created untold hardships within the Chigwedere clan resulting in many clan members adopting different nomenclature to avoid association with first and second respondents or to flee their roots in Hwedza to unknown destinations hoping the goblins will not catch up with them. All this in futility.”
Adds Magwiza: “First respondent is also in possession of two pieces of ivory on one of which names of clan existing, and family members and those deceased are inscribed in pencil. The one with names has been concealed and only the blank one remains now.”
Magwiza alleged the Chigwedere clan has lost a number of members because of the actions of his father.
“Female members of our clan cannot marry or if they do, many do not conceive. Some have been married for 17 years but have failed to find the fecundity during such a long period, no matter how hard they try consultatively. Those who conceive remain in the clan as wives of the goblins. Broken homes, broken marriages, lost dreams, lost lives characterises the clan,” he said.
Magwiza further claims his father performs bizarre and fiendish rituals on other family members’ off-spring.
Chigwedere allegedly sits the relatives “on reed-mats, getting them to hold crookedly carved wands and getting them to gulp the brew”.
“Due to the quasi-supernatural powers vested in him by the goblins and his physical presence and stature, First respondent gathers the whole clan at his residence fills a dish with porridge concocted with herbs. First respondent then makes deep cicatrices (nyora) on the little finger of each and everyone present drop blood and then scoop the porridge and eat it using that bleeding little finger. This was done in order of seniority down to those little ones who were still being breast fed. At every end he remained with a dish full of blood droppings from everybody present,” claimed Magwiza.
He accuses his father of performing numerous strange rituals annually “on the pretext that those are done to appease our ancestral spirits — yet in fact they are done to please the goblins.”
“Thereafter we experience incessant health problems — inexplicable physical pain, headaches, leg and back pains, tedium, weight loss, lack of sleep and dementia as those in Kambuzuma who are indeed a sorry sight,” said Magwiza.
He claims his father threatens to kill anyone who dare challenge him over the matter.
“First and Second respondents are calculatingly very cruel and deceitful to the point of deriving excitement in the destruction of their family and members of the clan. The name Chigwedere – though synonymous with affluence in its provenance, Hwedza, is in effect fraught with disasters for everyone else except the First and Second respondents.”
Magwiza further alleges that his father because of the power vested in him by the goblins, is capable of “domineering everyone in which ever way his prowess in unnatural and spiritual allows him to.”
He said Cde Chigwedere was an expert on tradition and culture and twists all acceptable cultural norms to suit his “dark designs”.
“This is the reason why third respondent’s (Zinatha) expert involvement is required – to engage the said goblins into agreeing to leave the family at whatever charge they demand in monetary terms.”
Magwiza is seeking an order stopping his father from indulging in uncultural practices designed “to be detrimental to the well-being of his off-spring, immediate family and clan members.”
He also wants an order directing Cde Chigwedere “to send off all the goblins in their posession by paying all the charges the said goblins shall demand as per culture.”
Magwiza wants the court to force Cde Chigwedere and his wife to allow traditionalists and apostolics unhindered access to their homestead.
He wants the director general of Zinatha to appoint three traditionalists and two apostolic prophets with unquestioned expertise “to sucessfully conduct the send off ceremony referred to in paragraph 3 above in the presents of family and clan members available”.
According to papers filed at the Harare Civil Courts by his son Magwiza Chigwedere yesterday, Cde Chigwedere is alleged to have caused untold suffering to his children and the extended family.
Also being sued is Cde Chigwedere’s wife Emilia Zharare Chigwedere – stepmother to Magwiza.
The Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (Zinatha) has also been cited as third respondent.
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| Cde Chigwedere |
“This is an application Applicant makes against the respondents in terms of Sections 97 (a) (1), 98 (2) of Chapter V of the Code and Sections 16 (1), 19 (1), 2 (c), 3 (b) (ii) and 20 (1) (e), Section 83 (b)(c) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.20) Act 2013 for indulging in non natural and uncultural practices to instill fear in family members, cause injury and or death, cause disease and or disability and condemn the said family members to abject poverty.
“The facts I depose of to hereunder are to the best of my knowledge true and correct reflections of what has transpired and still transpires,” said Magwiza in his founding affidavit.
He accused his father and stepmother of possessing goblins which they allegedly unleash on other family members.
Magwiza alleges the victims are fleeing Hwedza to seek refuge elsewhere.
“First and second respondents – Aeneas Chigwedere and Emilia Zharare Chigwedere – possess goblins which have created untold hardships within the Chigwedere clan resulting in many clan members adopting different nomenclature to avoid association with first and second respondents or to flee their roots in Hwedza to unknown destinations hoping the goblins will not catch up with them. All this in futility.”
Adds Magwiza: “First respondent is also in possession of two pieces of ivory on one of which names of clan existing, and family members and those deceased are inscribed in pencil. The one with names has been concealed and only the blank one remains now.”
Magwiza alleged the Chigwedere clan has lost a number of members because of the actions of his father.
“Female members of our clan cannot marry or if they do, many do not conceive. Some have been married for 17 years but have failed to find the fecundity during such a long period, no matter how hard they try consultatively. Those who conceive remain in the clan as wives of the goblins. Broken homes, broken marriages, lost dreams, lost lives characterises the clan,” he said.
Magwiza further claims his father performs bizarre and fiendish rituals on other family members’ off-spring.
Chigwedere allegedly sits the relatives “on reed-mats, getting them to hold crookedly carved wands and getting them to gulp the brew”.
“Due to the quasi-supernatural powers vested in him by the goblins and his physical presence and stature, First respondent gathers the whole clan at his residence fills a dish with porridge concocted with herbs. First respondent then makes deep cicatrices (nyora) on the little finger of each and everyone present drop blood and then scoop the porridge and eat it using that bleeding little finger. This was done in order of seniority down to those little ones who were still being breast fed. At every end he remained with a dish full of blood droppings from everybody present,” claimed Magwiza.
He accuses his father of performing numerous strange rituals annually “on the pretext that those are done to appease our ancestral spirits — yet in fact they are done to please the goblins.”
“Thereafter we experience incessant health problems — inexplicable physical pain, headaches, leg and back pains, tedium, weight loss, lack of sleep and dementia as those in Kambuzuma who are indeed a sorry sight,” said Magwiza.
He claims his father threatens to kill anyone who dare challenge him over the matter.
“First and Second respondents are calculatingly very cruel and deceitful to the point of deriving excitement in the destruction of their family and members of the clan. The name Chigwedere – though synonymous with affluence in its provenance, Hwedza, is in effect fraught with disasters for everyone else except the First and Second respondents.”
Magwiza further alleges that his father because of the power vested in him by the goblins, is capable of “domineering everyone in which ever way his prowess in unnatural and spiritual allows him to.”
He said Cde Chigwedere was an expert on tradition and culture and twists all acceptable cultural norms to suit his “dark designs”.
“This is the reason why third respondent’s (Zinatha) expert involvement is required – to engage the said goblins into agreeing to leave the family at whatever charge they demand in monetary terms.”
Magwiza is seeking an order stopping his father from indulging in uncultural practices designed “to be detrimental to the well-being of his off-spring, immediate family and clan members.”
He also wants an order directing Cde Chigwedere “to send off all the goblins in their posession by paying all the charges the said goblins shall demand as per culture.”
Magwiza wants the court to force Cde Chigwedere and his wife to allow traditionalists and apostolics unhindered access to their homestead.
He wants the director general of Zinatha to appoint three traditionalists and two apostolic prophets with unquestioned expertise “to sucessfully conduct the send off ceremony referred to in paragraph 3 above in the presents of family and clan members available”.
