A SOUTH African woman — who claims to be engaged to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai — has joined Ms Locardia Karimatsenga in seeking to have the premier’s wedding stopped.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai is scheduled to wed his fiancée Ms Elizabeth Macheka tomorrow at Raintree Lodge in Umwinsidale, Harare.
Ms Nosipho Regina Shilubane has instructed her lawyer, Mr Wellington Pasipanodya of Manase and Manase legal practitioners, to file an objection with Harare provincial magistrate Mr Munamato Mutevedzi.
Mr Mutevedzi granted the PM a marriage licence for tomorrow’s wedding.
The objection was filed yesterday morning.
Ms Karimatsenga’s lawyers filed their client’s objection papers before the same magistrate on Wednesday afternoon after the High Court dismissed her injunction.
Mr Mutevedzi is expected to deal with both cases today.
Lawyers representing the two women and those representing the PM and Ms Macheka briefly appeared before Mr Mutevedzi in his chambers at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts yesterday.
The matter was adjourned to today to allow lawyers for the PM, Mr Innocent Chagonda and Mr Selby Hwacha, to study the objection papers.
Ms Shilubane claims to be engaged for marriage and that she was shocked to learn of the PM’s scheduled wedding.
In her affidavit, Ms Shilubane claims she first met the PM on September 5, 2009 at Monte Cassino Shopping Centre in Johannesburg after being introduced to him by Pastor Lazarus Muriritirwa of the Gospel Assembly Church.
The pastor, Ms Shilubane said, invited her to a hotel room where Tsvangirai was booked, on the pretext that his friend wanted to see her.
“When we were introduced at the hotel room, he (Tsvangirai) asked his pastor and his son Edwin Tsvangirai to give us some privacy and we remained the two of us in the hotel room.”
While in the room, the PM reportedly told the woman he was a widower looking for someone to marry.
He reportedly proposed to Ms Shilubane.
The woman claims she was given a business card and the following numbers for communication —0027718972979, 00263772383532 and 00263772383593.
The PM allegedly invited the woman to Zimbabwe and she stayed at Pastor Muriritirwa’s house in Borrowdale, Harare.
Ms Shilubane said the PM bought her an air ticket for the trip to Zimbabwe.
She claims that he would visit her at the pastor’s house where they had their first sexual encounter on September 19, 2009.
“After my first visit, I returned to South Africa and he phoned me and asked me where I was staying.
“I advised him that I was staying in Yeoville and he expressed disgust saying ‘how can you stay in that hell hole; you need to get a nicer place in a location where I can come and see you in an uptown area’.
“I looked for a place and I found a townhouse in a place called Buccleuch in Johannesburg North near Sandton at No.53 Northfields, Fife Street, Buccleuch.
“R13 000 were deposited into my Standard Bank Account Number 026640473 by Morgan. I paid for the place and moved into the new place at the end of November 2009,” she said.
On December 28, 2009, Mr Tsvangirai reportedly met Ms Shilubane at OR Tambo Airport in the company of his twin children Millicent and Vincent and they proceeded to Seychelles for a holiday.
Tickets for the trip were purchased through Ms Zodwa Mtunzi of Traverse Travel Agency.
“We were intimate throughout the holiday period (12 days) and we always had unprotected sex as he had asked me to go on family planning medication.
“He said he did not want to have anymore children,” said Ms Shilubane.
“Whenever he went to a foreign country, he would pass by South Africa and I would go to whichever hotel he would be staying.
“We would be intimate and make love two or three times on each occasion,” she said.
On November 19, 2010, Ms Shilubane claims she followed the PM to Gaborone, Botswana, where he said “he was distressing, and he missed me and wanted to make love to me”.
Ms Shilubane said she eagerly followed the PM and they “stayed together at his hotel making love”.
It is indicated in the court papers that the PM spent another two weeks in Singapore with Ms Shilubane and photographs were taken during the holidays.
The holiday that Ms Shilubane called “love cruise” was on a boat called “Legend of the Seas”.
The PM allegedly visited the woman in January last year in South Africa saying he was now serious about the relationship and wanted “to throw her in the kitchen”.
During the visit, he had a motorcade and Ms Shilubane said at times PM Tsvangirai would visit in South African Police Services motorcade vehicles.
He asked to marry Ms Shilubane, which proposal was accepted and he promised her a wedding ceremony in Zimbabwe.
The PM, according to the papers, promised to talk to the pastor who would make the wedding arrangements before promising the woman’s children better education and a house.
Ms Shilubane said in January this year, her family members convened a meeting and waited for the PM to come and pay lobola and negotiations for a customary wedding ceremony, but he did not turn up.
PM Tsvangirai, Ms Shilubane claims in her papers, said he could not attend the meeting due to some Government commitments.
He had reset the customary wedding date for December 2012.
While she was expecting a customary wedding in December, Ms Shilubane said she was shocked to hear of the planned wedding to Ms Macheka.
Herald
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