News / National
CNN reporter says Zimbabweans are fed up with Tsvangirai's leadership
11 Apr 2013 at 03:33hrs | Views
MDC-T supporters are fed up with Mr Morgan Tsvangirai's leadership in the wake of scandals about his personal life and handling of public finances, CNN has said.
CNN's Connect the World anchor Becky Anderson put it to Mr Tsvangirai during an interview on Tuesday that reports emanating from Zimbabwe indicated that people were fed up with him.
The MDC-T leader was in the UK on a "private visit".
"Many people I speak to in Zimbabwe, with respect, are frankly fed up with your leadership.
"They say that you have compromised the power-sharing agreement. There are stories about your social life. There are stories about your finances and they go as far as saying that you have legitimised Robert Mugabe . . .
"They don't want to see your social life and your finances making headlines. For so many years people in Zimbabwe and outside relied on you as the official opposition figure who might be able to take Mugabe down.
"Do you still think you are in a position to do that or is it now time for a new generation of Zimbabwean leaders?" the CNN anchor asked Mr Tsvangirai who did not have a ready answer as he began talking about roadmaps and timelines.
As his response was at variance with the question, Becky Anderson re-phrased and repeated the question to which Mr Tsvangirai said, the verdict lay with the people.
The CNN's perspective on Mr Tsvangirai's political fortunes dovetails with several recent surveys that have pointed to a Zanu-PF victory in the harmonised elections scheduled for June.
MDC-T's allies among them the NCA, PTUZ, Zimbabwe Vigil, Sokwanele as well as the British paper, The Guardian, have also given the edge to Zanu-PF.
In the wake of his wife's death in a car accident in 2009, Mr Tsvangirai's bed-hopping hogged the headlines and spilled into the courts culminating in an abortive wedding to his customary wife Ms Elizabeth Macheka.
Among the women Mr Tsvangirai was linked were: Loreta Nyathi from Bulawayo with whom he sired a son whom he initially refused to take responsibility for including refusing to obtain a birth certificate.
Aquiline Pamberi also from Bulawayo.
Lorcadia Karimatsenga Tembo who he paid a bride price of US$36 000 for before "divorcing" 12 days later citing undue media attention.
Mr Tsvangirai also claimed he had not paid lobola but only 'damages" before a video clip of the ceremony called his bluff.
He ended up making an out-of-court settlement in the region of US$300 000.
Nosipho Regina Shilubane, a South African woman, who also objected to his planned wedding to Ms Elizabeth Macheka saying she had also been promised marriage before being dumped by phone.
Mr Tsvangirai's planned high profile wedding to Ms Macheka was last year cancelled by the courts after his customary marriage to Ms Karimatsenga Tembo was upheld by the courts.
Apart from his escapades with a string of women Mr Tsvangirai was also accused of corruption after he allegedly "double dipped" from treasury and the RBZ to the tune of US$1,5 million to renovate his house in Highlands.
CNN's Connect the World anchor Becky Anderson put it to Mr Tsvangirai during an interview on Tuesday that reports emanating from Zimbabwe indicated that people were fed up with him.
The MDC-T leader was in the UK on a "private visit".
"Many people I speak to in Zimbabwe, with respect, are frankly fed up with your leadership.
"They say that you have compromised the power-sharing agreement. There are stories about your social life. There are stories about your finances and they go as far as saying that you have legitimised Robert Mugabe . . .
"They don't want to see your social life and your finances making headlines. For so many years people in Zimbabwe and outside relied on you as the official opposition figure who might be able to take Mugabe down.
"Do you still think you are in a position to do that or is it now time for a new generation of Zimbabwean leaders?" the CNN anchor asked Mr Tsvangirai who did not have a ready answer as he began talking about roadmaps and timelines.
As his response was at variance with the question, Becky Anderson re-phrased and repeated the question to which Mr Tsvangirai said, the verdict lay with the people.
The CNN's perspective on Mr Tsvangirai's political fortunes dovetails with several recent surveys that have pointed to a Zanu-PF victory in the harmonised elections scheduled for June.
In the wake of his wife's death in a car accident in 2009, Mr Tsvangirai's bed-hopping hogged the headlines and spilled into the courts culminating in an abortive wedding to his customary wife Ms Elizabeth Macheka.
Among the women Mr Tsvangirai was linked were: Loreta Nyathi from Bulawayo with whom he sired a son whom he initially refused to take responsibility for including refusing to obtain a birth certificate.
Aquiline Pamberi also from Bulawayo.
Lorcadia Karimatsenga Tembo who he paid a bride price of US$36 000 for before "divorcing" 12 days later citing undue media attention.
Mr Tsvangirai also claimed he had not paid lobola but only 'damages" before a video clip of the ceremony called his bluff.
He ended up making an out-of-court settlement in the region of US$300 000.
Nosipho Regina Shilubane, a South African woman, who also objected to his planned wedding to Ms Elizabeth Macheka saying she had also been promised marriage before being dumped by phone.
Mr Tsvangirai's planned high profile wedding to Ms Macheka was last year cancelled by the courts after his customary marriage to Ms Karimatsenga Tembo was upheld by the courts.
Apart from his escapades with a string of women Mr Tsvangirai was also accused of corruption after he allegedly "double dipped" from treasury and the RBZ to the tune of US$1,5 million to renovate his house in Highlands.
Source - cnn
