Monday, September 24, 2012

The world of Morgan Tsvangirai



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Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (R) kisses his wife Elizabeth Macheka (L) after exchanging vows at a customary law ceremony during their wedding held in Harare on September 15, 2012. Photo/AFP
Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (R) kisses his wife Elizabeth Macheka (L) after exchanging vows at a customary law ceremony during their wedding held in Harare on September 15, 2012. Photo/  AFP
By KITSEPILE NYATHI kholwani@gmail.com
Posted  Monday, September 24  2012 at  01:00
IN SUMMARY
  • Some say Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister is a master goofer, others say he is only human
  • Women and false marriage promises, accusations of treason, endorsing a gay culture only to back-track, awkward moments with the German chancellor and being compared to Nelson Mandela are the many facets of the Zimbabwe Prime Minister
Standing up against Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe requires a lion’s heart in your rib cage. Few can survive the sheer brutality of his regime, let alone the man’s oratory, which even British prime ministers will tell you delivers a killer punch.
But Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has managed to bell the cat, forcing him to accept a power-sharing arrangement akin to Kenya’s.
But Tsvangirai’s social life is, well, something of a case study in goofs.
Now the premier is standing on slippery ground after a series of missteps that culminated in damaging relationships and other indiscretions finding their way into the courts of law.
A fortnight ago, he was forced to cancel a high-profile wedding because he was customarily married to another woman.
Ms Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo successfully petitioned the courts to block Tsvangirai’s marriage to Ms Elizabeth Macheka because the premier had paid bride price for her, meaning that they were married. Tsvangirai later went the customary way.
This was not before another woman, South African Nosipho Shilubane, also claimed that the politician had promised to marry her, narrating in graphic detail their escapades.
Both women claimed that Tsvangirai, 60, had introduced them to a lavish lifestyle and promised marriage.
Regional leaders had been invited to the wedding and some had already arrived when the magistrate ruled that the politician risked being arrested on bigamy charges if he went ahead with the wedding.
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Pro-Mugabe newspapers loyal to the president’s Zanu-PF party described the escapades as the clearest indication that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader did not have the capacity to succeed the 88-year-old Zimbabwean leader.
“So grave have been his errors of judgment and failure to handle personal affairs…,” wrote The Herald newspaper in a front-page editorial on Saturday.
As expected, the editorials could have gone overboard, but the Prime Minister has a long history of goofing, and certainly this might not be the last.
At the height of Zimbabwe’s land reform programme in 2000, Tsvangirai allowed himself to be filmed receiving money and cheques from white farmers.
His political adversaries, Zanu-PF, have since milked the footage for all its worth, claiming that this showed that the then opposition leader was a “puppet of the West” and was firmly in the back pocket of his “white handlers”.
As Mr Tsvangirai’s comedy of errors rolled on full steam, in 2002 , he was “caught” in a “sting operation” in the wake of allegations that he wanted to assassinate President Mugabe, leading to a high profile treason trial.
Whether the whole thing had been manufactured by the state or not, it resulted in Mugabe’s survival.
The MDC leader had allegedly engaged the services of a shadowy Israeli, Ari Ben Menashe, who later did a summersault and became the state’s star witness. The treason charges were later thrown out
In 2005, the premier continued on his self-destruct mode after his actions led to the split of his MDC party. The party called for a vote on whether to participate in the Senate elections, which he was against, and the MDC voted to take part.
Tsvangirai would have none of it and unilaterally pulled the party out of the elections, leading to a schism in the MDC that had given President Mugabe his toughest challenge since he came to power in 1980, and ultimately its split.
Observers claim that had the MDC contested elections as a united one, it would have finally rid Zimbabwe of the long-time strongman.
In 2007, on the eve of watershed elections, Tsvangirai again squandered an opportunity to re-unite the fractured party, which again cost him a chance to rule the country.
After a discredited election, he was persuaded to join a coalition government led by his rival, President Mugabe.
No sooner had he been appointed than he committed his first blunder in government.
Tsvangirai picked his first Cabinet, but was forced into a hasty retreat after sections of the country criticised it. He also picked an MP from the rival MDC formation without consultation, only for the poor MP to be expelled from his party, losing the seat. What was supposed to be Tsvangirai’s moment of glory was slowly turning into a nightmare.
In 2009, the former trade union leader, probably acting on poor advice, pulled his party out of the coalition government, claiming that President Mugabe was not playing ball. However, he was soon back, although President Mugabe did not make any concessions.
The most hilarious episode of his three years in government was during a state visit to Germany. Tsvangirai appeared to be gripping German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hand a bit too hard and when it was time to let go, he just would not let go. The chancellor had to smile embarrassingly as she tried to disengage the handshake.
As if that was not enough, the Prime Minister got protocol all wrong and stood on the dais with the German flag, instead of Zimbabwe’s.
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To cap it all, Tsvangirai was captured embarrassingly bowing to the German army at a military parade. Merkel could not help but blush at the innocence of her Zimbabwe counterpart. State media have played the clip repeatedly, seeking to show how unrefined Tsvangirai is.
Recently the premier was again in the eye of a storm as he appeared to be endorsing gay marriages in conservative Zimbabwe.
Homosexuality is largely frowned upon in Zimbabwe and there was an immediate knee-jerk rejection to the prime minister’s faux pas. Tsvangirai immediately backtracked in the face of the backlash his pro-gay statements had generated.
After that, a leaked memo to President Mugabe all but confirmed that Tsvangirai was working with foreigners to unseat the president. President Mugabe has taken every opportunity to portray Tsvangirai as a Trojan horse and the leaked memo seemed to show just that.
A recent survey claims that Tsvangirai’s popularity has dipped in recent years and that Zanu-PF is gaining ground. His party has been quick to discredit the opinion polls, but there are already calls for the MDC leader to resign from his government post and quit politics.
Zimbabwe is expected to hold fresh elections before June next year where President Mugabe and Tsvangirai are expected to be the main protagonists.
Tsvangirai’s escapades might be a boon for Mugabe, who won the past two elections against his rival under controversial circumstances.
Some people believe that the prime minister lost the plot when his wife died in a road accident soon after he joined his rival in an inclusive government in 2009.
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‘He is a blundering man, but far much better than Mugabe’
Zimbabweans have expressed mixed feelings over the impact of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s indiscretions that exploded on the eve of his wedding a fortnight ago.
Analyst Ibbo Mandaza says most people could view the sudden influx of women claiming to have been promised marriage by the politician as a political plot by the prime minister’s rivals.
“The public, to a large extent, views with suspicion the problems facing the prime minister as it believes there is a political hand behind it,” she says
Dr Mandaza warns that those who are trying to maximise on Mr Tsvangirai’s missteps could turn him into a martyr.
Prof Jonathan Moyo, a senior member of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, called for Tsvangirai’s arrest for allegedly lying under oath when he sought a marriage licence to clear the way for his marriage to Ms Elizabeth Macheka.
Mr Tsvangirai told a magistrate that he had terminated his marriage to Ms Locardia Tembo and maintained that line when he was dragged to the courts.
The Attorney General Johannes Tomana has criticised the manner in which the case has been handled, saying Tsvangirai had already been tried and convicted in the media.
However, the former Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leader is no stranger to the courts since he turned against President Mugabe in the 1990s. He led the ZCTU away from Zanu-PF and was instrumental in the formation of the MDC in 1999 to give Mugabe the strongest opposition since he became Zimbabwe’s first black head of state at independence in 1980.
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In 2002, Tsvangirai controversially lost the presidential election to the 88-year-old ruler but bounced back to win the first round of the 2008 poll, garnering 47.8 per cent of the poll against President Mugabe’s 43.2 per cent.
He was prevented from running in a run-off poll after security forces and former fighters of Zimbabwe’s liberation fighters launched a violent campaign against his supporters, leaving at least 200 dead.
Most Zimbabweans admire Tsvangirai for his bravery and view him as the only opposition leader with a realistic chance of ending President Mugabe’s 32-year uninterrupted rule. He also has a high international profile compared to other opposition leaders in Zimbabwe, giving him a competitive edge.
This year, the French government conferred on him the Legion of Honour, the highest order given to leaders who uphold universal aspirations and morals.  He was also compared to South Africa’s iconic independence leader Nelson Mandela and Myanmar’s Aung San Kyi by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
At home, Tsvangirai’s supporters have been quick to point out that his excesses cannot be compared to those of President Mugabe. His rival is accused of gross human rights violations, including post-independence army massacres that left over 20,000 civilians dead in the southern parts of the country.
Mugabe also has a chequered past when it comes to women. He sired two of his children with the current First Lady Grace Mugabe out of wedlock when his first wife Sally was battling a kidney ailment.
President Mugabe was also accused of snatching the First Lady from her former husband, with whom she has a son.
“(Mr) Tsvangirai never contemplated unorthodox means to ascend to power despite the fact that the world was on his side,” wrote Mr Jacob Nkiwane in an opinion piece titled ‘Tsvangirai has earned my vote’.
“Does he deserve to be president of our country?” asked Nkiwane, and answered: “Absolutely!”
According to Nkiwane, “the fact that Tsvangirai can be challenged by any person in court and say whatever they want to say about him is reason enough for me to believe in him”.

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