MORGAN Tsvangirai’s ex-girlfriend Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo has suffered a miscarriage, it was reported on Monday.
The news came after the Prime Minister got engaged to Elizabeth Macheka last Friday.
Radio VoP reports that Locadia – who was customarily married to Tsvangirai last November before the MDC-T leader called time on their relationship 24 hours later – miscarried two weeks ago “due to stress”.
Citing “informed sources”, the radio said Tsvangirai had sent his uncle Innocent Zvaipa to South Africa to sign papers authorising the cremation of the baby on behalf of Tsvangirai.
The claim could not be independently verified. The Prime Minister’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka had not responded to our enquiries at the time of writing.
Tsvangirai sent representatives to Locadia’s home on November 18 last year to ask for her hand in marriage, but he halted marriage proceedings a day later claiming that Zanu PF agents were manipulating her.
Her sister, Biata Beatrice Nyamupinga, is the Zanu PF MP for Goromonzi West.
The purported marriage attracted a fine for Tsvangirai from the local chief who said marrying in November was against Shona custom. The matter has spilled into the High Court as Tsvangirai fights the charge, insisting that he never married Locadia.
After the November 18 ceremony in Locadia’s rural Mt Darwin home, she spent weeks at Tsvangirai’s home in Buhera with his mother – but the Prime Minister snubbed her until she eventually packed her bags and left.
Last Friday, Tsvangirai engaged Elizabeth, who some believe was the real reason she terminated Locadia. At the time of his purported marriage, Elizabeth’s friends came out in the media claiming Tsvangirai had also promised to marry her. The suggestion was that he was two-timing the women.
Like Locadia, Elizabeth also has links with Zanu PF. Her father is Joseph Macheka, a member of the party’s central committee and former mayor of Chitungwiza.
Tsvangirai introduced his wife-to-be to friends and family at the La Serenata Restaurant in Highlands on Friday night.
A witness said: “They looked very happy together and were quite chatty all night. It was clear they have been together for a long while and are quite comfortable with each other.”
Tsvangirai and Elizabeth both lost their partners to car accidents. Tsvangirai’s wife, Susan, mother to his six children, died in a car crash in March 2009 while Elizabeth’s husband, Mabasa Simba Guma – a former Air Force of Zimbabwe wing commander – was killed in 2002.