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 Tendai Mugabe and Daniel Nemukuyu
LAWYERS representing Ms Locardia Karimatsenga intend to meet Attorney-General Mr Johannes Tomana as a follow up to a letter they wrote last week seeking Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s arrest.
This comes in the wake of statements by Ms Karimatsenga that she is not yet done with the PM until he owns up to their marriage.
Mr Jonathan Samukange of Venturas and Samukange said Mr Tsvangirai lied under oath in denying ever marrying Ms Karimatsenga.
Section 183 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act) criminalises perjury.
The lawyer also said there was an element of fraud in the case emanating from the said misrepresentation.
“He (PM Tsvangirai) made an affidavit in which he lied that he only paid damages.
“The same affidavit was used by the judge to dismiss our application.
“We spent three days going to the court striving to convince the court of the existence of a customary marriage when he knew he had paid lobola.”
PM Tsvangirai, Mr Samukange said, also misled the court when he initially appeared before magistrate Mr Munamato Mutevedzi seeking a marriage licence.
PM Tsvangirai married Ms Karimatsenga in November last year.
Ms Karimatsenga was later introduced to the Tsvangirai family in Buhera where she spent two months at the PM’s homestead. End of last year, PM Tsvangirai issued a Press statement dismissing the marriage, saying it had been hijacked by security agents.
Ms Karimatsenga later suffered a miscarriage, after which Mr Tsvangirai snubbed her.
The PM in April this year engaged Ms Elizabeth Macheka whom he customarily married, and was officially handed over to him last Saturday.
Speaking through her lawyer Mr Samukange yesterday, Ms Karimatsenga said she was comfortable to be in a polygamous marriage.
She is the first wife.
Mr Samukange said his client would not rest until the PM did “the right thing”.
However, the lawyer did not disclose the next course of action.
“We are not yet done with him until he has done the right thing. We have our custom, tradition and the rule of law, which the PM was sworn to safeguard jealously. The rule of law requires that he obeys it as enunciated by the legislature.
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“She (Ms Karimatsenga) is nowhere near divorcing the PM or giving him gupuro because of his marriage to Macheka.
“It is his problem and he has to sort it out himself,” he said.
Mr Samukange dismissed claims by the PM’s lieutenants that the court applications were concocted by State security agents and the premier’s political rivals.
“This is utter rubbish. It is nonsensical. All those organisations (CIO and Zanu-PF) are not involved in the cases.
“We had no intention to wash this matter in the public. Locardia is personally hurt. He impregnated her, marries and just dumps her.
“Worse still, the same person goes to the next village and marries another one.”
He added: “After all that pain and suffering, people conclude that she is being used by CIO and Zanu-PF.
“This means she cannot think for herself and that she only has to wait for the CIO to think for her. That is unfair.”
Mr Samukange said Mr Tsvangirai demonstrated high levels of stubbornness by attempting to terminate marriage to Ms Karimatsenga through a US$1 divorce token.
“We have a custom of how we marry and divorce. I believe the PM was simply being stubborn by tendering the token through a magistrate.”
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