Tsvangirai must choose now

The Prime Minister, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, needs to choose between a scandalous personal life and serving the nation.

In the event of the PM failing to make a choice, then Zimbabweans will do it for him. Everyone knows that the present situation is indefensible, he cannot do both.
Ordinarily, a man ought to be able to enjoy some degree of privacy. But Mr Tsvangirai's office, and the fact that he is seeking election to the highest office in the land, denies him that privilege. It is no small matter for a Prime Minister to behave like a horny schoolboy and to treat women with the sort of indignity that he has subjected Lorcadia Karimatsenga to.

If nothing else, he should lead by example. Yet for quite some time now, he has demonstrated that he is not a leader worthy of admiration or emulation. His latest behaviour speaks volumes not just about his moral fabric but his disposition, character and quality of leadership. Has he no shame? Has he not embarrassed his own party?
Of course some of his pseudo-liberal apologists have predicted that his unprecedented behaviour may not necessarily mean his downfall. I am not so convinced. I think the kind of damage he has caused himself is enormous. He is supposed to be a leader. He has many responsibilities, one of which is to carry himself in a manner consistent with his office. He has abdicated that responsibility not once but several times and has done so without any sense of guilt or remorse.

Lorcadia is obviously not his only victim. He has been linked to a number of G-strings including the unfortunate, vulnerable and innocent 23-year-old Bulawayo woman who has another of his possibly several illegitimate children.
Put it this way, a lot is at stake, for an otherwise necessary politician and for Zimbabwe as a whole.

PM Tsvangirai's problem is easy to point out but difficult to resolve. He is a widower who lost a partner of over three decades in a horrific car accident. Yet he is also a public figure, a politician seeking election to become President of the Republic who has not done much of a job to prove that he is worthy of the title.
Far from showing his worth, he has demonstrated that he is a man of questionable character who has no ethical boundaries, no central beliefs and not sensitive to the plight of females. That should not be trifled because it could very well overshadow his many fine accomplishments over the years. In that regard, he has himself to blame.

And that is precisely why there was something  bogus and hypocritical about all the fury and outrage expressed in his statement recently. Mr Tsvangirai sought to use Zanu- PF, presumably because of Lorcadia's family ties to the liberation party, as grounds for terminating his relationship with her. I refuse to accept that Zanu-PF had anything to do with it.
Of course he was perfectly within his rights to express an opinion and probably did the right thing to finally speak out on a matter of such great public interest about which he had kept mum for an unconscionable period.

But what cannot be overlooked is that Mr Tsvangirai has a history with women, a history too long to blame anyone for but himself. Besides, his relationship with Lorcadia had come quite a long way. Sources say their romance started at OR Tambo Airport in South Africa a couple of years ago. As far back as last year, he and Lorcadia were seen in the company of Theresa Makone and his daughter, Vimbai, at the Harare International Conference Centre when Joyce Meyer visited the country.
Indeed, the two have extensively travelled the globe on holiday trips including one vacation trip to Dubai last year. The reality of the matter, therefore, is that Mr Tsvangirai has had more than ample time to study his partner ' Theresa Makone's ' or anyone's alleged involvement for that matter notwithstanding. In all probability, he was alive to Karimatsenga's association with the people's party. And in all likelihood, he did not see that proximity as an impediment to their relationship, all the more reason to see his paranoia for what it's worth: an attempt to blame a blameless party for something which Mr Tsvangirai himself is directly and exclusively responsible.

None of the evidence seems to suggest any sort of entrapment. Everything indicates that Mr Tsvangirai got himself entangled with Lorcadia freely, voluntarily and while he was well aware of the latter's family political persuasion. And that's the beginning and end of it.

As far as Zimbabweans are concerned, it is a bit baffling that, whereas President Mugabe is offering hope and realising dreams through the ongoing indigenisation and empowerment drive, Mr Tsvangirai is busy dishing out babies, shattering dreams and breaking hearts. It bodes ill and shows that his priorities are altogether misplaced. Until he sorts himself out, Zimbabweans will be disinclined to place the country entirely in his hands.

Psychology Maziwisa is a former student leader and Harare-based legal advisor, political commentator and analyst. E-mail him: profpsymaz@yahoo.co.uk.