In an angry outburst during a press conference in Bulawayo on Friday, the MDC-T leader denied claims that he was neglecting the 19-month-old boy named Ethan.

Tsvangirai, 60, was tackled by journalists after New Zimbabwe.com exclusively revealed this week that he was yet to see the tot and was refusing to help the mother obtain a birth certificate for him.

“I have my personal life and you have yours. I would prefer that we keep it like that. I am not refusing to assist him,” Tsvangirai insisted.

“Whatever the reports you have heard, I will take care of it and his mother knows the arrangement that we have. I have not refused my responsibility.

New Zimbabwe.com is reliably informed that as of Friday, Tsvangirai still had NOT seen the child, the product of a brief romance with Nyathi, the daughter of former radio presenter, Inglam.

The Prime Minister made a half-hearted acknowledgement of the boy after Nyathi threatened to take him to court to claim maintenance.

Tsvangirai’s lawyer Innocent Chagonda negotiated an out-of-court settlement, and US$1,400 is being paid into Nyathi’s ZB Bank every month – although there is no written acknowledgement of paternity.

Tsvangirai and Nyathi first met in late 2009 at the Churchill Arms Hotel in Bulawayo just months after his wife and mother of their six children, Susan, died in a car crash.

The two kept in touch through phone calls and text messages. They romped at several hotels including the Holiday Inn and Nyathi fell pregnant.

During her battle to get child support from Tsvangirai, she revealed that the Prime Minister’s aides had pressured her to abort the pregnancy. Tsvangirai’s aides sent her money to travel to South Africa for the procedure at a private clinic. She took their money but kept the baby.

Tsvangirai married Elizabeth Macheka, 35, during a traditional ceremony earlier this month and reports suggest he plans to wed his new wife on September 15.