Locadia Tembo eloped to Tsvangirai's home, she is not married

Locadia Tembo, the woman at the centre of the marriage storm with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, is alleged to have slept outside his Harare home in Strathaven for 3 days, in an apparent attempt to force him into marrying her.

In line with the Shona custom of "kutizira" a pregnant woman will either go to the man's house or his relatives and refuse to leave until she is taken into the family, or damages are paid. This could explain why Tsvangirai later sent emissaries to the Tembo homestead last week Monday, to pay a reported US$10,000 in damages.

Details emerging points out that Locadia Tembo reportedly attempted to commit suicide in desperation after the PM rejected her 3 months ago.

Reports claim that when Tembo fell pregnant, she decided to elope to Tsvangirai's home, but Tsvangirai while accepting the pregnancy steadfastly refused to marry her and turned her away but she reportedly started behaving in a strange manner and threatened to kill herself at the PM's Strathaven House by throwing herself in from of the PM's official Mercedes Benz while it was in motion.

Sources said this alarmed Tsvangirai and his relatives resulting in one of the relatives deciding to take her to his house and managed to convince her against taking her own life.

Tsvangirai then decided to pay damages for the woman hoping that she and her family would be satisfied. But the family now aided by suspected state operatives decided to dramatise the issue and said the PM paid lobola for Tembo. On the day the damages were paid, her family members phoned all media houses to run the story that Tsvangirai had married.

And Tsvangirai has vowed "he will never marry her come hell or high water" as he is angry that she is working with state agents to destroy him.

NewsDay reports PM Morgan Tsvangirai believes there is a sting operation led by State security agents whose aim is to tarnish his image ahead of next elections.

PM spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka, yesterday said the alleged plot revolved around the PM's marriage saga and involved teams from the Central Intelligence Organisation, ministry of Media, Information and Publicity and journalists from the state media.

Tamborinyoka said the deepening saga surrounding Tsvangirai's sex life was a well orchestrated hatchet job masterminded at the CIO and Information ministry offices.

MDC-T sources said journalists involved in the operation were tipped off about Locadia Tembo and her family's movements by the CIO.

They said the secret spy agency was also concocting stories to portray the PM in bad light by planting stories of his "many girlfriend."