Tsvangirai had a secret wife - Reports

The late MDC-T leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, secretly paid lobola for a Bulawayo woman, Nobuhle Marylin Ndiweni (36), last year while he was officially married to Ms Elizabeth Macheka, it has emerged. Mr Tsvangirai, who died in February, sired a child named Joy with the woman.

Ms Ndiweni is a card-carrying MDC-T member.

Mr Tsvangirai has been linked to several women over the years, siring many children in the process.

The Herald is in possession of pictures showing Tsvangirai's brothers, Casper and Sam, paying lobola to the Ndiweni family last year.

This vindicates assertions by Mr Tsvangirai's brother, Manase, that the late MDC-T leader was a polygamist.

During Mr Tsvangirai's funeral in Buhera, Manase admitted that his brother had many wives and his family was bound to give recognition to all families, whose daughters were married to the opposition leader.

Mr Tsvangirai was married to Susan Mhundwa, who died in a car crash in 2009. They had six children.

He sired four other children with two different women before his latest marriage to Ms Macheka.

"We have to treat all these wives equally," said Manase.

A family source said while it was public knowledge that Mr Tsvangirai had a child with Ms Ndiweni, the opposition leader actually paid lobola for her.

"One of your sister papers (Sunday News) actually reported that he had impregnated Ndiweni who later gave birth to a baby boy at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo but the real story is mufi wakanosimbisa hukama nekubvisa-PFuma," said the family source.

"Mukoma Casper and Sam were the leading family members in the process and were welcomed in the family with both hands. The late actually made several visits to the family after his shenanigans."

Our sister paper, Sunday News, last year reported that Joy was born on July 27, 2017 with her mother having been admitted at the hospital the previous day.

The birth record number is BC 0085691.

Contacted for comment at the time, Ms Ndiweni denied being in a relationship with Mr Tsvangirai and giving birth to the former prime minister's child.

"What are you talking about? I don't know anything about what you are saying. I never gave birth and I've never been involved with him (Tsvangirai)," she said before hanging up.

Ms Ndiweni is alleged to be the second Bulawayo woman Mr Tsvangirai impregnated after Ms Loreta Nyathi.

In 2011, Ms Nyathi (then 21) exposed Mr Tsvangirai when she claimed that the MDC-T leader was neglecting his child and threatened to sue.

He was also accused of refusing to help Ms Nyathi to obtain a birth certificate for their son, Ethan.

Mr Tsvangirai was married to Ms Macheka but the couple did not have a child.

Leading to his second marriage, Mr Tsvangirai had been involved or linked with various women, among them Ms Locardia Tembo Karimatsenga, Acquilina Pamberi, Arikana Chihombori, Leah Mhundwa and a South African woman, Ms Nosipho Regina Shilubane.

He had to pay large sums of money to Ms Karimutsenga after he ditched marrying her at the 11th hour.

Investigations by the Sunday News revealed that Mr Tsvangirai met Ms Ndiweni through a party senior female member.

Ms Ndiweni is said to have joined MDC-T in 2000 as an ordinary card-carrying member before she relocated to South Africa.

Upon her return to the country she briefly joined Professor Welshman Ncube's MDC before defecting to MDC-T in the same year.

Mr Tsvangirai also allegedly built a fowl run for his new lover at her parents' house at Nketa 9.

Mr Tsvangirai's private life has not escaped media spotlight in recent years with his involvement with different women eclipsing his turbulent political career.

His relationship with Ms Shilubane earned him the nickname "Legend of the Seas" after pictures of the two lovebirds on a boat by that name went viral on social media.