By Mary Taruvinga

THE widow of the late Zanu PF legislator Tendai Savanhu, who is accused of assaulting her step son in an ongoing estate wrangle, has denied the allegations, arguing there is bad blood between them.

The widow, Tendai Madakureva-Savanhu, said this when her trial commenced before Harare magistrate, Tafadzwa Mhiti on Monday.

Shw is being accused  assaulting Tatenda Savanhu when he went to oversee her eviction from her Glen Lorne matrimonial home in March this year.

She was being evicted as a result of another dispute involving another woman associated with the late politician.

“The accused person denies and dismisses the allegations being levelled against her,  and rather states she is a victim of abuse from the complainant,” she said in her defence.

“The accused will deny ever assaulting the complainant on that day, but will state that the events of that day were calculated, as the complainant wanted to get an interim peace  order against her with conditions which required her to visit her matrimonial home.”

Tendai said the allegations are malicious  and the reason being there is an ongoing family inheritance wrangle on her husband’s estate.

She said it is on record that there is bad blood between herself and her step son.

“If at all there was an eviction in place, the messenger of court is the only person allowed to carry out the process. The question that follows is what was the complainant doing at the premises. From the state papers it is clear that Acie Mutumanje is the one who hit the windscreen, and not the accused,”her lawyer said.

The widow has known no peace since the demise of Savanhu, claiming that the politician’s ex-wife, Sabina and her son, Tatenda, want to disinherit her.

Tendai and her children currently have no shelter after she was thrown out of her matrimonial home.

Tendai alleged that Sabina and her son wanted to elbow her out of the empire she helped build.

She took the matter to the courts, also suing her late husband’s lawyer, Partson Matandadzi, for conniving with Sabina and misrepresenting facts, knowing that she was Savanhu’s only wife and surviving spouse.

Matandadzi is, according to court papers, the executor of Savanhu’s estate, also playing the role of paying off the family’s expenses through Savanhu’s company, T and S Marketing.

In her declaration, Tendai said the company was responsible for payment of all their expenses, including fees, medication, farm expenses, wages and workers’ accommodation, among other expenses.

She said Savanhu did not distinguish between his personal affairs and the affairs of his company.

The widow said they acquired the stand where they built their matrimonial home in 1999, before they built and completed the house two years later.

She said they moved in soon after completion and lived there for 20 years with their three children before her husband died.

According to the declaration, she is the one who was responsible for the designing of the house, monitoring of its construction and daily running of their family.

The stand was registered in T and S Marketing’s name.

She said  Sabina ceased to have any interests in T and S Marketing and was removed as one of the directors of the company.