Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was forced to marry new wife Elizabeth Macheka under customary law (which allows polygamy) in order to thwart attempts to stop the wedding by bitter former lover Locardia Karimatsenga who got a court injunction taking away his Chapter 37 (now 5:11) marriage licence.
In this article we give you a sample of some of the comments made by Zimbabweans dotted across the world on the whole saga.
A prominent lawyer and author on Facebook had this to say:
“Journalists who work in Zimbabwe are an embarrassment to their profession. All the stories about MT’s wedding debacle make customary law a bastard child of the legal system, like it is there but does not really matter!
“Not a single news story has our legal system right, not one! The Guardian today reports that he could still face bigamy charges, while the BBC and others say he married in defiance of the court order!
“I blame the local journalists because it is they who are feeding this wrong information to the international press. There were no foreign journalists at the wedding, but there were lots of local journalists, some of whom are stringers for AP, Reuters and BBC.
“And there are no legal experts interviewed in any of the stories, but there is lots of nonsense about tribal laws and defying rulings. This is not acceptable.”
Morgan Tsvangirai: “My father-in-law is from another party, but when I saw Elizabeth I did not ask for her party card or her political affiliation. I just saw and appreciated her beauty and I said this is the one I love.”
Geoff Nyarota (founding Editor-in-Chief of The Daily News)
The PM “is hereby kindly advised to desist from engaging in a sustained public war of words with Ms Karimatsenga Tembo, especially on the front pages of Harare’s newspapers. The only beneficiary to emerge from such combat is Karimatsenga Tembo — and the circulation managers of the newspapers peddling the salacious tales. She has little or absolutely nothing to lose. She has already been taken to the limits of mortal embarrassment.”
Tapiwa Gomo : “Does it mean that for every step he (PM) takes, there is someone who has scores to settle with him? If that is the case, it must be hard to be Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai then. But the experience so far has shown the importance of the role the late Susan played in providing balance in the Prime Minister’s life. May her soul rest in peace.”
NewsDay newspaper comment:
“Those opposed to Tsvangirai have seized this opportunity to malign his reputation in the hope that they would make political capital out of it. They are using Tsvangirai’s sex scandal to “discredit the entire struggle of democratising Zimbabwe”. In doing so, we just hope this won’t be a case of the kettle calling the pot black.
“Tsvangirai has been the “face of hope that Zimbabweans had of a democratic, moral and accountable future” and should stop his “sexcapades” and concentrate on issues affecting the nation. He must channel his energies to the full consummation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to guarantee free and fair elections next year.”
Zambian labour minister Fackson Shamenda (Tsvangirai best man):
“If Elizabeth wants to know Morgan, she should call me or my wife. I have been married to my wife for 32 years and I have lived with my wife without any piece of paper. When I was reading of the malicious things, I told the Zambian ambassador that l was not tied to my wife by any piece of paper. What God has put together, no one can destroy.”
Advocate Lewis Uriri:
“The honorable Mr Justice Bhunu dismissed the urgent chamber application early this morning. There will be no wedding. We apparently have to locate Locadia in appropriate circumstance, give her a dollar or something and ask her to take the same to her father as a divorce token.
“Thereafter it appears we have to confirm to the father, “in the cultural way” that we sent off his daughter with the coin or whatever it is. The problem is this, it has been suggested that culturally, she has to be sent off with the divorce token from the “matrimonial home”.
The danger is this, either she refuses to come to the “matrimonial home” or she comes and refuses to leave. In the latter event you have to go to court for an order of ejectment for you can’t take the law into your own hands.
“Critically (I got my hands burnt once for using that word in evidence, but would dare repeat it!), her political handlers will ensure that she denies ever receiving the divorce token. On the contrary they will point to a further act of sexual intercourse and claim she has now conceived!”
