Tsvangirai’s ex-lover bares all in book

By Lloyd Gumbo

Mr Morgan Tsvangirai is a fan of Irish boy-band Westlife, and never travels without his iPod. These are some of the milder claims made about the MDC-T leader and former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in a book being penned by one of his former lovers.

The other claims made by South African Ms Nosipho Shilubane are not as endearing.

Mr Tsvangirai’s ex-mistress claims, among other things, that he is a “womaniser” who lost control of his love life. The book, titled “Rejected by the World — Accepted by God”, will be published by April.

Ms Shilubane says she is including a chapter detailing their romantic engagements, as well as others in which she talks about how Mr Tsvangirai pushed her away so that he could go on to marry two other women.

“My original plan was to gatecrash the wedding and when it was time for the priest to ask if there was anyone who objected to the wedding, I would then stand up and stop the wedding,” reads part of the book.

“I even bought an outfit for that occasion. I am a shy person but I was determined to stand on that day and tell everyone how their Prime Minister uses women and then dumps them like trash. I wanted to see him faint on that day and then walk out of that church satisfied.”

Ms Shilubane said on one of Mr Tsvangirai’s trips to the United States, he passed through South Africa but did not try to meet her as he usually did.

“A day later l received a text message from an American number that read: ‘Our relationship has been terminated due to distances. For your upkeep please contact the Pastor (Lazarus Muriritirwa of the Gospel Assembly Church) — Morgan’.

“After I had received the text message from Morgan, a few days later I learnt that Locardia was pregnant with twins, and I said that can’t be true . . .

“He told me he never loved her. He always told me that she was pushing for the relationship to continue but he had told her that it was over.

“She bought him expensive gifts, showered his children with money and presents, he said he had told her to stop it and she refused to listen.

“Now my question is, how could she be pregnant? She surely couldn’t have forced him to sleep with her. I was so angry at that time and I wanted to tell him what a scumbag I think he is but he was not answering my calls.

“Then I read in the newspapers that he had paid lobola for Locardia, what sort of confusion was that?

“He always denied everything and blamed everything that went wrong in his life on other people, but that does not seem to be a wise move at all. A real man stands and takes responsibility for his actions.

“However, embarrassing they may be, you must be brave enough and deal with your problems, shifting blame at all times was the only strategy he had. This is the man who is considered to be brave by his people,” writes Ms Shilubane.

She was later to learn that Mr Tsvangirai was in a relationship with Ms Elizabeth Macheka whom he later married customarily.

“It was evident that Morgan Tsvangirai was a womaniser and had lost control of his love life. He had a lot of people advising him on his personal life and when he was in the deep end, no one was able to help him.

“Only this time he had thrown himself at the deep end. I started thinking of ways to make him pay for what he had done to me,” she continues.

Before ending the relationship, Ms Shilubane says the ex-PM came up with several excuses to get rid of her.

Some of the excuses, she says, included the fact that she could not speak Shona, something he said would make it difficult for her to communicate with his mother. Mr Tsvangirai also said, she claims, that Zimbabweans would not approve if he married a foreigner.

Ms Shilubane says Mr Tsvangirai said his son was once married to a South African woman and South African women were not good wives.

“I feel so free and relieved, I sit and imagine what my life would be like right now, being married to a liar, having to worry about who he is sleeping with when I am not there, having to follow him everywhere he goes because I did not trust him.

“All the fun we used to have, listening to the music of Westlife, dancing and laughing, all of that meant nothing to him. He always travelled with his iPod and iPod Dock and told me that his daughter-in-law Lillian had put some nice music for him so he can’t do without it.

“I got a chance to know this man and be able to know how he thinks, you cannot rely on him for decision-making because I believed that he did not have the final say.

“This man is a serious womaniser; even if the CIO had something to do with the scandals, he had given them the ammunition to do that. It was not easy being in a relationship with that man, having to look over your shoulder every time and yet he would claim that he loved me.

“He made promises that he never kept,” reads the book.

In an interview with The Herald, Ms Shilubane said the book was not a money-spinning venture.

“I know some people may think, I am doing this for money but the truth is that I am a Christian who is just pouring her heart out,” she said. “That is why I waited until after the elections. I want other women to know the kind of experience I went through so that they avoid the pain I suffered. The book seeks more to advise them than to expose Morgan.”

Before settling on Ms Macheka, Mr Tsvangirai was linked with several women.

These include Shilubane, Karimatsenga (whom he customarily married in 2011 before reportedly paying her about US$200 000 to end that relationship), Loreta Nyathi (with whom he sired a son), Arikana Chihombori, and Aquilina Pamberi.

His marriage to Ms Macheka is on the rocks after she walked out on him citing a “sensitive medical condition” affecting the former PM. The Herald