Tendai Wenyika

Service/Career

Wenyika served on the Zimbabwe Youth Council and quickly became involved with the Pan African Youth Union (PYU) where she was the deputy secretary-general. ^[2] On completion of her degree at MSU, she relocated to Harare and joined the Zanu PF Harare province structures. In 2009 she was elected Zanu PF Youth deputy secretary for education for Harare Province. ^[3] She was instrumental in the formation of the Zimbabwe Young Women’s Network and Zimbabwe Entrepreneurs Youth Association. She participated in peace and advocacy missions in Somalia, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Mali and Libya. ^[4]

She is citizen of the world, whose served as diplomat (2009-2015), with the Pan African Youth Union, a specialized agent of the African Union. It is this experience, that has greatly shaped and informed her appreciation and passion for global work and politics. The service in diplomatic work, compelled her desire for service and her advocacy work around the need for women in Africa to occupy critical space, in each and every space where decisions affecting their lives are made. She has addressed the African Union Heads of States summits, 2011, in Equatorial Guinea and 2013, in Ethiopia Addis Ababa 2013, 50th Anniversary of the African Union Summit, The Africa- Europe Heads of States Summit, Brussels, 201. Subsequently in 2013, she was awarded by Junior Chambers International, in Taiwan, as one of the Ten Outstanding Young People of the World.

She has served in various boards and co-founder of various organizations, such as the Zimbabwe Youth Council, Zimbabwe Young Women’s Network, Upfumi kuvadiki. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Health Professions in Zimbabwe and is also a business entrepreneur.

She was not elected to parliament.
Women
In the 2013 Elections, (see A History of Zimbabwean Elections), sixty seats were allocated to women in 2013, under the 2013 Zimbabwe Constitution. They were divided into 6 per province, based on a party's share of votes in the province. The parties produced lists of candidates before the elections. Successful candidates are listed in bold. Only parties which had successful candidates are listed. Vote counts for these seats may vary slightly from the official provincial vote totals due to some multiple candidates votes.

Harare Province

MDC–N	MDC–T	Zanu PF
Marongedza Shorai	Masaiti Muzungu	Sabina Thembani
Mary Nhavhaya	Value Chitembwe	Sabina Mangwende
Shumirai Zinyoro	Ronia Bunjira	Miriam Chikukwa
Maggie Sandram	Susan Matsunga	Tendai Wenyika
Grace Parehwa	Revai Muguti	Rodhas Karimakwenda

Events

Assaulting Husband's Alleged Mistress

In August 2014 she assaulted a woman she suspected to be in an adulterous relationship with her then husband, Mike Gava. Wenyika suspected that the legislator took her watch and allegedly gave it to his mistress Belinda Cele. Cele approached the Harare Civil Court where she sought a peace order against Wenyika. According to her application filed at the Harare Civil Court, Cele said she was verbally attacked by Wenyika and her gang at the Zanu PF Youth League conference.

In the court application Cele says,

I was verbally attacked and almost physically violated by Wenyika at the just-ended Zanu-PF Youth League conference. She approached the vehicle I was in and started accusing me of having an affair with her husband. She further went on to call her two friends who assisted her in physically abusing me to teach me a lesson. I am well informed that she has a relative working at Econet who assisted her in gaining access to my personal contact number which she is using to harass me continuously,” reads Cele’s application.

Wenyika denied the allegations and accused Cele of being in an affair with her husband. Part of her opposing affidavit reads,

The complainant has approached this honourable court with dirty hands seeking a peace order from me yet she is the one who is in an adulterous relationship with my husband to whom I am legally married. To my mind it could not have been a mere coincidence that his girlfriend would have an identical replica of a watch with the same brand that appeared exactly like mine. I asked Miss Cele civilly while we were still at HICC as she was seated behind me where she had bought her watch and she told me in Dubai. We did not discuss further as she hastily changed seats.

Wenyika said while outside the HICC, she saw Cele seating in her husband’s car and approached her,

I went over and I asked her why she was intent on wrecking my marriage, making public appearances in my husband’s car and furthermore why she would wear another woman’s watch. It is true I called a friend to come and confirm that the watch was mine and we requested to have the watch back and she surrendered it voluntarily and at no point did we manhandle Miss Cele neither did we make threats to her in any way.

^[5]

Divorce And Maintenance Case

She filed for divorce in July 2015 arguing that Gava was having adulterous relationships with different women. In her court application she revealed that the two had been living separately since April 2014. Wenyika indicated in the papers that relatives unsuccessfully tried to solve the marital problems. The couple agreed to sharing of property and custody of the minor child Mike Saviour Gava. Each of the two parties retained possession of movable properties in their possession. ^[1]

At the time the two agreed that Gava would be paying $200 every month for the upkeep of the minor child as well as catering for the child’s medical expenses. ^[6] In January 2015 Wenyika had taken Gava to court on allegations of neglecting their child. Wenyika sought US$930 for her upkeep and that of the one-year old baby. In her application, she claimed the lawmaker was not contributing anything towards the upkeep of his son Mike Saviour Gava. ^[7]

Awards

• Junior Chamber International’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World (JCI TOYP) awards 2012 in the category of political, legal and or governmental affairs.^[2]

Trivia

• South African politician Julius Malema was a guest at her wedding and handed the couple $6,000 cash as a wedding gift. ^[8]

References