MDC-T ambassador in another sex scandal

This article was written by Our reporter on 12 June, at 04 : 59 AM

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THE Zimbabwean ambassador to Australia is embroiled in another sex scandal – this time involving her butler.

Jacqueline Zwambila has been accused of sexual harassment by butler Felix Machiridza, who claims he was victimised after refusing to sleep with her.

The diplomat who is from the MDC-T party of Morgan Tsvangirai was involved in a scandal last year after she was said to have stripped down to her underwear in the presence of several male staffers.

She was recalled from her posting but sent back in December following an investigation.

In an e-mail, Machiridza listed his grievances, which include having to pick up used condoms in Zwambila’s son’s room.

“I have been pushed to the brink of the precipice and I feel I should cry out in order to get some respite,” he wrote. He said he was threatened by one of Zwambila’s friends that “if anything came out back at home, Ambassador Zwambila’s sympathisers would deal with me”.

Machiridza, who has worked for the ambassador for over a year, accused her of “exposing her half-nude body” to him.

“On March 27 2010, Ms Zwambila called me on my mobile at 10.30pm and asked me to bring Coke to her room. I obediently went upstairs to the kitchen, poured the Coke and took it to her room. I knocked on her door and she asked me to come in. I was shocked to see her half-dressed, sitting on her bed.”

He said she greeted him with the words: “Come and give me my Coke. Why do you behave as if you have never been with a woman before?”

Machiridza said he was invited to occupy a room next to Zwambila’s at the official residence in Canberra. He said that, after spurning her advances, he had “been made to work extra-long days without overtime, been ridiculed and insulted”.

Zimbabwe’s Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Joey Bimha, said: “We received a complaint from the butler and we are studying the report. “