By Never Kadungure
Former Chitungwiza mayor and Zanu PF Central Committee Member Joseph Macheka has defended Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai telling newshounds from the state media that the PM had married his daughter Elizabeth, ‘properly.’
Macheka said he accepts and respects the PM as his son-in-law but this will not affect his allegiance to Zanu PF. “I am Zanu-PF and that will not change. We have to learn to co-exist with whoever we don’t agree with in terms of ideas. He married my daughter properly, so I will respect him as a son-in-law.”
“Elizabeth doesn’t know politics because she has no interest in it. The reason is that I did not raise her. She was raised by her grandmother, but all the other ones I raised have an understanding of politics so they would know the implications of some relationships,” Macheka said.
Macheka who attended Tsvangirai’s wedding on Saturday, said he hopes his daughter will quickly catch up with politics to match the PM. “When I heard that she was in love with the PM, I called her and said: Mai Rumbi, are you sure that you are in love with the PM and she said ‘yes’.”
“I said ‘What do you like in him?’ And she said she just liked him. I said to her that life with Tsvangirai is different from that of her previous husband who was a civil servant. This one is a politician and there is a great difference between them.” Elizabeth’s previous husband, the late Mabasa Simba Guma, who died in a car crash 10 years ago, was a soldier.
“You must learn quickly because it is different now. I am a follower of a President and a party, but he (PM) is the president of another party. The way we voted in the previous election showed how big his (PM) family is. I want you to be aware of how big the family that will call you mother is,” Macheka said.
He also described his daughter as hardworking. In her first week after the wedding, Elizabeth attended the trial of 29 MDC-T activists facing what their party believe are trumped up charges of murdering policeman Inspector Petros Mutedza.
Both victim’s father Solomon Mutedza and brother Tichaona exonerated the MDC-T activists and instead blamed Zanu PF and CIO agents for the murder. Justice Chinembiri Bhunu still reserved indefinately his ruling on a bail application for the group, some of whom have been in custody for 16 months.
Tsvangirai married Macheka under customary law (which allows polygamy) thereby thwarting attempts by his bitter former lover Locardia Karimatsenga who had succeeded the day before in getting a court injunction taking away his (Chapter 37) marriage licence (which does not allow polygamy).
Karimatsenga and her legal are still trying to get the PM arrested for allegedly lying in court that he did not marry her under customary law last year in November. Tsvangirai allegedly claimed in court that he had only paid damages to the Karimatsenga family.
