HARARE - Mhondoro Ngezi MP and former Information minister Bright Matonga and Anne Pout’s legal teams will head to court next month for a decision about their divorce case.

Their lawyers will have to tell High Court judge Tendai Uchena about what they have done to settle the case or prepare for trial. Matonga ditched Pout, his British-born wife of 11 years six years ago, and started cohabiting with Sharon Mugabe, a rich businesswoman.

Matonga moved out of the matrimonial home on a farm they seized from a commercial farmer and allegedly moved in with Mugabe. The 41-year-old widow who has stolen the heart of Matonga, runs a marketing communications firm, Imago Y&R.

Pout has instructed leading human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa to pursue Mugabe, the woman she alleges wrecked her marriage.

Mugabe has been refusing to settle even though Pout signed an iron-clad prenuptial agreement with Matonga that could cost her dearly.

The matter has been on the court log since 2009, when a pre-trial conference failed to take off on November 24, 2009.

Mtetwa had written to the Harare High Court demanding that the matter go for a pre-trial hearing because numerous correspondences to the defendant’s lawyers had been ignored.

The matter has now finally been set down before Justice Uchena.

Mugabe has retained Jessie Majome and Associates as legal counsel.

Matonga abandoned his wife, Pout, whom he brought back with him to Zimbabwe in 2001 from the UK.

In her initial suit Pout wanted $50 000 from Sharon as compensation for breaking her marriage.

Matonga married Pout, a former municipal information technology manager in 1997, and moved into her home in Billericay, a small commuter town in Essex, England.

Matonga returned home with her in November 2001 to head the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Television division, rising through the ranks until he became minister.

After formation of the inclusive government, he lost his ministerial post.