Correspondent|THE curious case in which opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has been accused of raping a 39-year-old woman (name withheld for ethical reasons) is floundering after police confirmed yesterday that the complainant may indeed be suffering from mental health problems.
As a result, authorities are waiting for direction from psychiatric experts, before they decide on what course of action they should take on the case — which opposition supporters claim is part of a sinister plot by the ruling Zanu PF to destabilise the MDC ahead of its crucial congress in May.
Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga told the Daily News yesterday that although they had received the rape complaint from the woman based in Norton, they had moved to demand medical reports on her mental condition, after relatives said her behaviour was erratic.
However, this did not mean that police had dismissed the case — but neither had they contacted Chamisa because “everything was now hinged on the requested medical report”.
“Yes, we received a complaint which we are investigating, but we have also been told that the woman who made the complaint has mental problems.
“We have requested for official papers confirming that she indeed has mental problems. We should be getting those papers sometime tomorrow (today). Check with us by the end of day then,” Matanga said.
It is known that the complainant — who was once based overseas — left her home in Norton on Thursday saying that she was going to Harare.
But along the way, she went to Norton Police Station and filed a report of rape against Chamisa, making sensational claims that she had been sexually abused by him in November last year at around 10pm, when she was returning from an evening jog.
She also claimed that Chamisa had accosted her at her residential gate, before he allegedly proceeded to rape her inside the house.
In the meantime, it has also since emerged that the woman is married to a State security agent who is based in Canada.
It is also claimed that the complainant has previously and unsuccessfully filed rape allegations against her husband while they stayed together in Canada.
She was apparently subsequently forced to return to Zimbabwe due to her erratic behaviour linked to mental health problems.
Meanwhile, the MDC said yesterday that it suspected that Zanu PF and the government were involved in the rape claims to “decapitate Chamisa politically”.
“We have, surprisingly, not been informed of this investigation. These accusations against our president are thus a dime a dozen (of little value). “In any event, we hope someone is not trying to stigmatise mental illness to cover up a botched and hare-brained smear campaign.
We are focused on the task at hand to conduct congress and to get national dialogue going, to reclaim the people’s victory in the presidential election,” MDC spokesperson Jacob Mafume said.
Last week, the MDC claimed that Zanu PF was trying to destabilise the party ahead of its crucial elective congress in May — where a new substantive party leader will be chosen to lead the country’s largest opposition outfit for the next five years.
This was after mischievous Zanu PF “agents provocateurs” backed the party’s well-regarded secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora to beat the popular Chamisa in the fast-approaching polls.
This, in turn, saw paranoid MDC senior leaders openly accusing the ruling party of working frantically to destabilise the opposition party again — following a tweet by Zanu PF deputy youth leader Lewis Matutu, who “predicted” the fall of Chamisa come May.