Zimbabwe PM’s marriage ‘a sting’

Zimbabwe’s prime minister has ended a relationship with a woman who claims they married in a traditional ceremony after she became pregnant, saying their affair turned out to be choreographed political sting.

Locadia Karimatsenga, a 39-year-old commodity broker, said last month that she was pregnant with Morgan Tsvangirai’s child, or possibly twins, according to local media.

The 59-year-old former opposition leader lost his wife of three decades in a 2009 car crash.

The state-run daily Herald newspaper reported on 22 November that Mr Tsvangirai had paid £23,000 and five cattle in traditional “bride price” at a ceremony at her family’s homestead north of Harare. A church wedding apparently was to take place at a later date.

Newspapers controlled by Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party have been particularly assiduous in chronicling the fledgling union.

They had taken particular delight in detailing its alleged problems: such as the claim that Ms Karimatsenga has tried to kill herself and that it was a shotgun marriage prompted by her pregnancy.

But Mr Tsvangirai said yesterday he became concerned about the motives of the woman’s family and whether him marrying her will “reflect marriage as the noble and respectable institution it is.

“My genuine intention has been betrayed, and hearts have had to search long and hard for the true meaning of this well-choreographed drama that has now been hijacked to cause political damage to my person and character,” he said in a statement.

“Everything has been played in the press and I have become an innocent bystander,” he said.

“I have become a spectator and things are happening too fast, on camera and without my knowledge.

“This has led me to conclude that there is a greater and thicker plot around this issue which has undermined my confidence in this relationship”.

Ms Karimatsenga is the sister of an MP belonging to president Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai were political adversaries for years until they joined into a troubled power-sharing agreement in 2009.

That same year, Mr Tsvangirai’s wife, Susan, died in a car crash after 31 years of marriage. The couple had six children.

For two weeks, Mr Tsvangirai’s office has repeatedly had denied that he paid bride price or compensation for any pregnancy, saying the only marriage he was concerned with was the uneasy one between his party and Mugabe’s ZANU-PF.

But even Zimbabwe’s independent media has sharply criticised Mr Tsvangirai for not speaking out earlier, and questioned his judgment over his handling of the negative publicity it created.

Mr Tsvangirai said details of the affair that were reported by pro-Mugabe journalists had been “deliberately planted” to besmirch his name.

“I want to admit that the last two weeks have been particularly bad for me, my children, my family and even ordinary Zimbabweans who have sought to find meaning in this sordid saga,” he said.

“In hindsight, I could have done things differently … I apologise to every single Zimbabwean for any discomfort caused by any of my actions,” he added.

Mugabe, 87, has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain in 1980.

Having once been the fertile “bread basket” of Africa, however, the country is now one of the continent’s – and the world’s – poorest countries.

Three-quarters of the population live in extreme poverty on less than £1 a day and over half of the work force is unemployed.

Following the disputed 2008 election, it is now ruled by a coalition of the ZANU-PF and Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change.

However, the arrangement is marred by political infighting and is widely considered to be ineffective. Mugabe is reported to be suffering from pancreatic cancer. He has indicated that he will hold elections early next year, although no date has been set.