By Thando Kanye
To most Zimbabweans, the name Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo brings back memories of her bitter court battle with the country’s then Prime Minister, former trade unionist and popular opposition leader, the late Morgan Tsvangirai.
It was September 2012 and Locadia had launched a legal bid to stop the marriage of the PM to Elizabeth Macheka, the businesswoman who had replaced her after her own short-lived union with Tsvangirai.
It was a dramatic court action which grabbed the headlines, as Locadia threatened to stop Tsvangirai’s vows of matrimony to Macheka, three years after the MDC supremo had lost his wife Susan in a car accident.
Locadia also wanted the Prime Minister to pay monthly allowances of $15 000.
With his wedding under threat, the MDC leader reportedly had to hand over a divorce settlement of around $280 000 to Locadia.
In the eyes of some, she was just another bitter, money grabbing jilted lover while to others she was a woman who had been wronged and deserved what was rightfully due to her.
The marriage to Tsvangirai had lasted 12 days before he walked away, claiming that their union had been infiltrated by enemies, including state security agents.
Fast forward eight years later, Locadia is now a different woman from the one that dragged a country’s Prime Minister to court. She is now the leader of her own flock, as an apostle at the Nation of Glory Ministries in South Africa.
Like all self-styled men and women of God nowadays, she has shown to that she has a good eye for fashion and a taste for the finer things in life, with her social media feed showcasing various looks that might live many a fashion guru envious.
The woman who once hoped to walk down the aisle with Zimbabwe’s most popular opposition politician now only struts to the pulpit, ministering the holy word.
Her calling, she once told local media in 2016, came unexpectedly.
“I started doing home meetings where a few Christians come together but we ended up meeting in my house more. We had room. I just had one child, so we had a home cell group where we studied the word of God and seeking in guidance from God.
“And then from there, we decided we should make this bigger so that we can help many other people,” she recounted.
Four years later, it seems like those humble beginnings are paying off. Nehanda Radio