Bona Mugabe, daughter of the late former President Robert Mugabe, has secured a significant legal win in her high-profile marital dispute with estranged husband Simbarashe Mutsahuni Chikore. High Court judge Justice Amy Tsanga has ruled that Bona can pursue both annulment and divorce proceedings concurrently a major procedural hurdle that had stalled the case since 2023.
Represented by prominent lawyer Addington Chinake, Bona amended her initial divorce summons to include a claim for annulment. This followed shocking revelations that Chikore was allegedly still legally married to another woman, Margaret Jeanine Brooks, in the United States at the time he wed Bona on March 1, 2014.
Chikore, through his lawyer Rogers Matsikidze, contested the amendment, arguing that the Matrimonial Causes Act does not allow for simultaneous claims of divorce and annulment, as they are legally contradictory. He maintained that Bona should have withdrawn her original summons and filed a separate annulment application.
However, Chinake countered that the court had already granted consent to amend the summons a move Chikore had initially agreed to and emphasized that the amendment was legally valid. He also accused Chikore of deliberate stalling tactics aimed at evading accountability for alleged bigamy.
In her judgment, Justice Tsanga sided with Bona, stating that while it is not typical to combine annulment and divorce in a single action, the interests of justice warranted flexibility. She ruled that it was justifiable to plead the two causes of action in the alternative, especially given the gravity of the allegations.
“If the annulment fails, the court can still consider the matter on grounds of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage,” she explained. Tsanga also noted that marriages entered into while one party is already legally married elsewhere are considered void ab initio (from the beginning).
Chikore has now been ordered to file his plea within five business days, with costs reserved pending the final outcome of the case.
This ruling represents a critical turning point in the divorce saga, which has drawn national attention due to the Mugabe family’s legacy and the sensational nature of the claims. With the door now open to a full hearing, Bona Mugabe’s pursuit of justice for what she claims was a fraudulent marriage moves one step closer to resolution.
