Zimbabwe Vice President Kembo Mohadi has resigned following an alleged sex scandal linking him with several married women and girls.
The ministry of Information posted Mohadi’s resignation letter on Twitter in which he apologized to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, his cabinet and all Zimbabweans for his alleged infidelity.
In his letter, Mohadi said he has been soul-searching following the publication of his alleged sexual escapades with several women and realized that he needs to deal with his problems outside government.
“I have arrived at this decision not as a matter of cowardice but as a sign of demonstrating great respect to the office of the president so that it is not compromised or caricatured by actions that are linked to my challenges as an individual. The interconnectivity with social media ecologies have been relaying viral moral panics, peddling flames of lies, creating myths, and muddling the reality of my life as a family man. I am a victim of information distortion, voice cloning, and sponsored spooking and political sabotage.
“Digital media, in their hybridity, have been abused by my enemies to blackmail me, but my spirit will never die. Following the recurring dis-information and virilisation of my alleged immoral unions, dispensed through awkward slacktivism, I am stepping down as the vice president of the Republic of Zimbabwe in terms of Section 96(2) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (No.2) Act, 2013 with immediate effect.”
According to the Zimbabwe Constitution, a vice president “may resign his or her office by written notice to the president, who must give public notice of the resignation as soon as it is possible to do so and in any event within twenty-four hours.”
Mohadi said he was stepping down to save the image of the government and respect for the people of Zimbabwe and the ruling party as some people have been affected by the “falsehoods and character assassination in the digital ecosystems.”
He further said his resignation is also “necessitated by my desire to seek clarity and justice on the matter in which my legal team will pursue and deconstruct this pseudo-paparazzi and flawed espionage to achieve cheap political points.”
He promised to “poke holes on this grand strategy from political foes.”
One of the women identified as Mohadi’s mistresses is Abbigail Muleya Mumpande, who was praised a few years ago by former US President Barack Obama for travelling more than 400 kilometers from Zimbabwe’s remote Binga district to Harare to apply for the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.
At that time, Muleya Mumpande was working for a non-governmental organization. She is now working in Mohadi’s office in Harare as a junior Central Intelligence Organization operative with her husband, Jacob Mumpande.
The other women linked to Mohadi are Chervaughn Choeni, another one only identified as Luba, who lives in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo. Luba allegedly asked Mohadi to pay her college fees and dumped him soon after completing her studies.
He divorced his wife of 30 years, Tambudzani Mohadi, claiming that she was involved in some adulterous affairs. Mohadi later lived with a young woman, Juliet Mutavhatsindi, who allegedly left him over his alleged infidelity. He was appointed vice president three years ago.
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VOA