PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has told friends and colleagues that he “would not pick out in a parade” the Bulawayo woman who claims the MDC leader is the father of her three-month-old son.
“He is not denying that he may be the father, only he can’t remember the woman – itself a testament to his shambolic private life,” said a senior MDC source.
Tsvangirai has instructed high-powered Harare lawyer Innocent Chagonda to stop maintenance proceedings against him and settle out of court.
Loreta Nyathi, 23, the daughter of radio legend Inglam Nyathi, approached prominent Bulawayo lawyer Josphat Tshuma after Tsvangirai apparently refused to take responsibility for her son, Ethan.
Loreta says she first met Tsvangirai in 2009 at the Churchill Arms Hotel through a mutual friend. The two kept in touch until Tsvangirai visited Bulawayo early last year to assess the food situation – and the two love birds romped at the Holiday Inn.
Widower Tsvangirai has been linked with a string of women since his wife, Susan, died in March 2009 in a horrific car crash. Advisers have told him to get a handle on his private life, but colleagues tell of a “rapacious womaniser" hooked on "no-strings-attached sex”.
“In most instances, he meets a woman and in minutes they are done and for him that’s usually the end of it – but for most of these women there is hurt because they feel used and abandoned,” said an MDC colleague.
Loreta was referring all questions to her lawyer on Monday, but a family friend told New Zimbabwe.com how Tsvangirai’s aides channeled thousands of dollars to her in a bid to get her to ABORT the child.
“Loreta first approached Tsvangirai’s chief of staff Ian Makone when she was three months pregnant ... and she was given a lot of money and asked to abort the baby, but she spent it on other things,” the friend said.
“She returned to Makone when the pregnancy was six months and they gave her more money and sent her to a South African doctor who was reluctant to carry out an abortion due to the advanced state of the pregnancy.
“She insisted and the doctor finally gave her some tablets to induce a miscarriage. The result, however, was that she just bled and bled but the pregnancy stayed.”
Following the child’s birth, it is claimed, Loreta found it increasingly difficult to access Tsvangirai’s aides.
She finally got attention when she called in the lawyers. New Zimbabwe.com understands Tsvangirai, through his lawyer, has asked for DNA tests – promising to take full responsibility if it can be proved the child is his.
Several people who have seen the child told New Zimbabwe.com a DNA test could be an unnecessary expense.
“It’s a small Tsvangirai,” said one.