PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai hit back at critics and political rivals Saturday, dismising them as hypocrites as he presented his wife, Elizabeth Macheka, to thousands of supporters at Glamis Arena in Harare.
Tsvangirai, 60, had planned to wed Macheka, 35, Saturday but cancelled the lavish ceremony after his ex-lover, Locardia Karimatsenga, successfully challenged the nuptials in the courts.
But the defiant MDC-T leader told supporters: “We respect the law; we don’t violate the law but there are other people who would like to abuse the law for their political ends.
“I think I will make it to the Guinness Book of Records as the first Zimbabwean to be denied the right to wed."
Tsvangirai also rounded on critics declaring: "Some have a chain of wives and some took other people's spouses. So what is my issue?
"Uyu ndakapfimba ndega, ndikaroora ndega and ndichafa naye. Zvichemo zvinoenda nekuna mai ava ndivo amai venyu.”
The MDC-T leader, dressed in a black suit and Macheka, in a white gown, had earlier exchanged vows before hundreds of guests overlooking a flowing river at a Harare plush garden wedding venue.
He staged the ‘wedding’ under the country's customary law which allows a man to have as many wives as he wants in order to circumvent the court ban secured by Karimatsenga.
And in apparent reference Karimatsenga and the court ban, Tsvangirai said: "Munhu haapihwe mukadzi ne court; haapihwe ne newspaper. Ini ndangoti hangu kana munhu aine dhimoni anoguma odya mwana.”
President Robert Mugabe boycotted the ceremony which was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara and the Prime Minister of Swaziland Barnabas Dlamini.
"Our celebration is a customary one... We still have to celebrate when the climate is clear," said the Catholic priest who conducted the ceremony, after the couple exchanged rings. The two did not sign a marriage register.
A pipe band from one of Harare's top private schools played as Tsvangirai walked on a white carpet into the wedding ceremony, while a violinist played 'here comes the bride" for Macheka.
Congratulations in order ... Swazi premier Barnabas Dlamini greets newly weds