Tsvangirai 'wife' suicide bid
2011-11-30 14:02
Special Report
Civil society groups in Zimbabwe say election delay would do little to dissuade President Robert Mugabe's supporters from voter intimidation.
Cape Town – The "marriage" of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has taken a new twist after it emerged that the woman he "married" allegedly attempted to commit suicide in desperation after the PM rejected her three months ago, Zimbabwe's Daily News reported on Thursday.
The report said that the woman Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo who is currently making headlines over her alleged marriage to Tsvangirai, decided to elope to the prime minister's home a few months ago after she fell pregnant.
Tsvangirai, although accepting the pregnancy, allegedly turned her away and that was when Tembo "started behaving in a strange manner and threatened to kill herself at the prime minister's Strathaven house in Harare".
Tembo is also said to have threatened Tsvangirai with exposing the affair and the pregnancy, which then forced the prime minister’s decision to pay "damages" for the woman hoping that she and her family would be satisfied.
"On discovering that Tsvangirai was not interested in marrying her, she threatened him with exposing the affair, the pregnancy and throwing herself in front of prime minister's official Mercedes Benz vehicle while it was in motion.
"This is when people realised she was serious," the report said, quoting a close Tsvangirai family member.
On the day the damages were paid, Tembo’s family, allegedly being aided by suspected state operatives, would not have the ceremony done in private.
State agents
It is alleged the family decided to dramatise the issue and said the prime minister had paid lobola for Tembo.
On the day damages were paid, her family members phoned all media houses to run the story that Tsvangirai had married.
This worsened the situation.
"It's now worse. Tsvangirai has vowed that he will never marry the woman come hell or high water. He is angry that she is working with state agents to destroy him, he is unhappy that Zanu-PF agents are now at the forefront of damaging him using her," the source was quoted as saying.
The source, according to report, said Tsvangirai indicated that he had “discovered things that showed him she was not the right woman for him given his status as the prime minister and hopefully president.
She was also told plainly by Tsvangirai that her past was so dangerous that it could be used by his detractors to destroy his standing in society".
- News24
