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without moral direction and inclined to evil) ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?”’
Before that he cautions, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Wise counsel from a king who ended up with a harem of women, despite the fact that he had shown remarkable humility when he made his real choice — WISDOM at the beginning of his reign. And, how ironic that wisdom is referred to as woman.   
This writer has been wondering the increasing frequencies of peripety in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s love life. Part of the interior monologue that has preoccupied me is: Why bother to vote, let alone have a Constitution and Parliament that enacts the laws of the land if those laws can be broken with impunity by people who hold high offices?
Yes, Prime Minister, why bother about the rule of law and why also cry foul day and night if it is made to look like it is not worthy of the paper it is written on? That said, we ask whether PM Tsvangirai is above the laws of this land. Achieving one person, one vote was a painful process and it is time people said no to the circus we have been witnessing since the tragic death of his wife Susan Nyaradzo, on March 6, 2009.
Looking for enemies where they do not exist and looking for people to blame when someone blunders will not take the stupid mistakes away.
When PM Tsvangirai decided to enter the political arena, he did so knowing the age-old adage that politics is a dirty game; a game that operates without rules, where nothing is certain and everything is possible.
So, playing the victim does not take away the fact that the buck stops with PM Tsvangirai for whatever actions and/or decisions he takes regarding his personal life, both in the private and public arenas.
Since the Ari Ben Menashe saga a decade ago, to last week’s polygamous marriages the Premier has played the victim because he has realised that by so doing, he gets political mileage out of those irresponsible actions that he wants to tarnish other people’s names, except himself. And, hearing him talk through the media that give credence to his actions, you can actually see that the man is unfazed. But then, there are limits to whatever we do, including playing the victim.
When something goes awry in PM Tsvangirai’s life and the MDC-T, they are not willing to reflect on the issues, but are quick to apportion blame on Zanu-PF and State institutions such as the police, the Central Intelligence Organisation and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
When will they ever learn to take responsibility for their actions? For those who argue that remarking on the Premier’s actions will turn him into a victim and hero at Zanu-PF’s expense. As Zimbabweans, we caution, “Mumwe musi gava richadimbura musungo”, and all hell will break loose.
This blame game and the scapegoat mentality were demonstrated after the tragic accident, which claimed his wife. On March 12, 2009 I wrote, “I will also add that Friday evening (March 6) was one of the most challenging days for many journalists in the public media . . . We wondered how the international media could recklessly use terms such as ‘foul play’, ‘assassination attempt’ and ‘threat to the fragile inclusive Government’ when none of them had reporters on the scene to provide footage, which could have buttressed their malicious innuendoes . . . Thus the news created an atmosphere of uncertainty, confusion and in some cases panic. It was a threat to national peace and security when people started insinuating foul play.”
This convenient but damaging approach continues to be used in the PM’s personal life. If the State institutions and public media that are always blamed really cared to dabble in the PM’s personal life, why is it that they are not bothered about his children and other relatives? Are they also not newsworthy, by virtue of their association to him? Let’s now turn to the so-called “bride hand over ceremony” (kupereka). I have noted that the media has also bought into this farce hook, line and sinker as they call it a traditional marriage ceremony. Maybe we have all forgotten that we are villagers.
Since when has the bride’s father handed over the wife to her husband in a “bride hand over ceremony” or traditional marriage ceremony, a responsibility that is carried out by the bride’s aunts (madzitete or obabakazi? But we saw Cde Joseph Macheka doing just that last Saturday.
We ask where this Shona register is emanating from. Just because most of us are now urbanites does not mean that our culture should play second fiddle to Western culture where fathers and/or guardians give away their daughters in marriage. Even if the giving away could have been done by the aunties, it is a ceremony that should have been held in the Tsvangirai homestead, and not at some tourist-like resort.
That in itself has significance in our culture. A lot is done after this ceremony that is in keeping with our culture. This is when people know whether the bride is capable of performing duties outside of the bedroom.
Then there were other oddities such as the white gown, exchange of rings and all the paraphernalia that went with it. There is also the so-called blessing of the “traditional ceremony” by Roman Catholic priest Father Patrick Makaka.
It seems as though the church, be it protestant, Pentecostal and/or Catholic are mired in the PM’s affairs politically and personally. In the various instances, the church has had to clarify its position regarding the on-going saga. Bishop Levee Kadenge of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe who was named as one of the respondents when Ms Locardia Karimatsenga Tembo filed her objection with the courts spoke out and said he did not want to be associated with the “circus”.
Then the PM’s South African lover, Ms Nosipho Regina Shilubane in her affidavit objecting the premier’s marriage to Ms Elizabeth Macheka said that Pastor Lazarus Muriritirwa of the Gospel Assembly Church introduced her to the PM. He too had to clarify his involvement in the saga.
When American televangelist Joyce Meyer held her Festival of Life crusade in Zimbabwe from June 4 to June 6 2010, PM Tsvangirai attended the last evening session in the company of Ms Karimatsenga Tembo. How did he introduce her to Joyce Meyer, and what did she say about their partnership?
Then there is Nigerian prophet TB Joshua of the Synagogue Church of all Nations. Rumours abound that when the Premier went to see him with some family members, Ms Karimatsenga Tembo was among the troupe. However, it is Father Makaka’s comments that make an already confused issue, more confusing. In an interview with The Herald on Tuesday, the Catholic priest claimed that the Premier did not make full disclosure to him on his marital status with Ms Tembo.
Before a couple is joined together in holy matrimony, church banns are announced for three consecutive Sundays, in keeping with Zimbabwean laws. Were banns ever announced, and was Father Makaka the marriage officer of first choice?
Last week, local and international media devoted so much space and airtime to the snags hitting the Premier’s wedding. Father Makaka, let alone the Catholic Church leadership cannot claim that they were in the dark about those goings-on. Where did the couple receive marriage counselling — at the Catholic Church and/or another church?
When Father Makaka went on to bless the union, was the Catholic Church also endorsing polygamy? Is this the norm in the church or a precedent was being set? As a woman, I had hoped that the priest would have seen that which is so obvious: that someone is abusing his political power and using money to lure a string of women into relationships, promising them marriage for that matter, only to leave a majority of them broken-hearted.
We also thought as a spiritual figure, notwithstanding that Ms Macheka is a parishioner at his church and that the Premier was baptised in the Catholic church would have seen that there is rampant physical and psychological abuse of women by someone who should be responsible citizen of this country, barely three years after the tragic death of his wife. No one is taking away his right to marry as a widower, but as women, we object to the objectifying and abuse of women, and using politics to deny responsibility.
Politicising anything and everything about PM Tsvangirai will do more harm than good.
The Premier in his address to his party supporters after the marriage found it very convenient to politicise the marriage and at the same time denigrating Zimbabwe’s justice system: “As a party, we follow the law. As a party, we don’t violate the law. But there are other people who would like to abuse the law for their own political ends. That we reject. That we condemn. Munhu haapiwi mukadzi necourt. Ungapiwe mukadzi nenewspaper? Newspaper rinozivei . . .?”
Mordecai A Hamutyinei in his poem, “Vakachenjera vanoti zvipei doro” writes:

Kana vakaona munhu achinetsa vamwe vanhu,
Achikarira ushe nokuda kuitwa mutongi,
Achida kuita mbimbindoga mumamana,
Havambonetsekana, havambomurova kana kumusunga,
Vanongoti chete, zvipei doro!
And, King Solomon’s mother was even wiser when she said to him in Proverbs 31: O my son . . . do not spend your strength on women, you vigour on those who ruin kings.