PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai married his long-term lover, Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo, at a private ceremony in Mazowe on Monday, New Zimbabwe.com can reveal.
Tsvangirai, 59, has been dating the wealthy 39-year-old commodity broker for nearly a year, but his aides have always denied they were dating.
The MDC-T leader arrived at the neat countryside neighbourhood of Christon Bank near Mazowe just after 4PM local time for the traditional ceremony, accompanied by one of his brothers and more than a dozen aides.
Tsvangirai paid US$36,000 cash in bride price, before asking Tembo’s family for a wedding which was happily granted.
A source at the ceremony told New Zimbabwe.com: “Locadia’s family were all there and they were very very happy.
“She is expected to move in with Tsvangirai shortly and will be on his side on public engagements. In fact they have been playing happy family for a while living in the same house.”
Tsvangirai has been single since his wife, Susan – the mother of their six children – died in a car crash in March 2009.
His new wife, who was born in Victoria Falls, has one child, a boy. She recently completed construction on a sprawling new mansion in Greystone Park, Harare.
Tembo made a fortune in commodity brokering. A company she owns had exclusive rights to supply all products sold at Makro wholesale stores and Jaggers.
She attended Queen Elizabeth Secondary School before enrolling for a business management diploma at Speciss College.
Tsvangirai’s inlaws have links to Zanu PF. Tembo’s sister, Beater Nyamupinga, is the Zanu PF MP for Goromonzi West. The MP’s husband, Felix Nyamupinga, is on the diplomatic service in Australia.
Tsvangirai’s decision to marry ends months of speculation, and stern denials from his aides.
But even as New Zimbabwe.com asked Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka to confirm his boss’ marriage, we were met with fresh denials.
“If you believe that you may as well believe that Jonathan Moyo is a white man. There is no truth in that,” Tamborinyoka said in a terse response.
But other Tsvangirai aides say it may be possible Tamborinyoka, who was not at the Mazowe ceremony, was not briefed.
“Very few people knew, apart from Tsvangirai’s family and those close aides who travel with him everywhere,” said one.
Since his wife’s death, Tsvangirai has been linked with a string of women.
In March this year, he was forced to pay out maintenance to and house a 23-year-old woman, Loreta Nyathi, who claimed he had neglected their three-month-old son.
Tsvangirai shelled out only after the threat of being taken to court, but it’s not known if he has ever seen the child named Ethan.