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 Lloyd Gumbo Herald Reporter
ZANU-PF Central Committee Member Cde Joseph Macheka says he accepts Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as his son-in-law and his marriage to his daughter Elizabeth will not affect his allegiance to the revolutionary party.
The former mayor of Chitungwiza said he would respect Mr Tsvangirai as a son-in-law because he properly paid lobola for his daughter.
“I am Zanu-PF and that will not change.
“We have to learn to co-exist with whoever we don’t agree with in terms of ideas. He married my daughter properly, so I will respect him as a son-in-law.”
PM Tsvangirai married Ms Elizabeth Macheka last Saturday in a customary law union after the magistrate’s courts cancelled a marriage licence it had issued.
The marriage licence was nullified at the instigation of the PM’s other wife, Ms Locardia Karimatsenga.
Ms Karimatsenga argued that if Mr Tsvangirai was allowed to have a registered monogamous marriage with Ms Macheka, her status as the PM’s first wife would have been invalidated.
Cde Macheka said his daughter did not know the implications of some relationships because she was not interested in politics.
“Elizabeth doesn’t know politics because she has no interest in it. The reason is that I did not raise her. She was raised by her grandmother, but all the other ones I raised have an understanding of politics so they would know the implications of some relationships,” he said.
Speaking at the mock wedding ceremony on Saturday, Cde Macheka said he hoped his daughter would quickly catch up with politics to match PM Tsvangirai.
“When I heard that she was in love with the PM, I called her and said: Mai Rumbi, are you sure that you are in love with the PM and she said ‘yes’.”
“I said ‘What do you like in him?’ And she said she just liked him. I said to her that life with Tsvangirai is different from that of her previous husband who was a civil
servant. This one is a politician and there is a great difference between them.”
Cde Macheka said his daughter was going to live a totally different life from that which she was used to with her late husband – who was a soldier.
“You must learn quickly because it is different now,” he said. “I am a follower of a President and a party, but he (PM) is the president of another party.
“The way we voted in the previous election showed how big his (PM) family is. I want you to be aware of how big the family that will call you mother is.”
Cde Macheka described his daughter as hardworking.
Lawyers representing Ms Karimatsenga are pushing for PM Tsvangirai’s arrest for perjury and contempt of court.
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On the other hand, Ms Karimatsenga said she was not yet done with Mr Tsvangirai until he owns up to their marriage.
PM Tsvangirai could have lied under oath when he sought a marriage licence from the magistrates’ courts.
It is understood that he could have lied when he said he had only paid damages when in actual fact he paid lobola.
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.
PM Tsvangirai married Ms Karimatsenga in November last year.
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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 Macheka whom he customarily married and was officially handed over to him last Saturday.
PM Tsvangirai has been linked to a string of women some of whom he had unprotected sexual encounters with.
This resulted in him impregnating a Bulawayo woman, Loreta Nyathi.
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