Despite the intensely negative publicity from the Zanu PF-controlled State media, people across the political divide and from all walks of life turned up for the “mock wedding” making it real in every sense of the word except legal. Said Father Makaka: “There are marriages in this country which are just on paper. This marriage is a union that God has put together . . .”
It was far from a dampened affair, going by the guest list which included Zanu PF’s Chris Mutsvangwa, ex-tennis player Wayne Black, Olympic swimming gold medallist Kirsty Coventry and Zimbabwean music icon Oliver Mtukudzi despite Tsvangirai’s sexual pecadilloes with one woman, Locardia Karimatsenga, proving before the court that she was customarily married to him, another surfacing in South Africa alleging he had promised her a hand in marriage and several others locally. While most of the stories were believable, suspicion arose as to the motive behind the outbreak of the revelations.
Here we are talking of adult, single, unattached women who probably have a “past” of their own, possibly as sordid as the State media would like to portray Tsvangirai’s life to be — not young, innocent virginal girls.
If I may paraphrase American writer Ginia Bellafante, if there are no perfect Prime Ministers, there are also no perfect mistresses-cum-witnesses. It was found that the women who came forward to accuse former United States President Bill Clinton over the years, had “records as mottled as his”.
One of his accusers, Kathleen Willey, was found to not only have lied to her previous boyfriend that she had got pregnant by him and then had an abortion, but further asked her friend to lie that Clinton had grabbed her private parts. These gross inventions, had they not been timeously discovered, had the potential of bringing down Clinton. Fortunately, she was stopped in her tracks. So, unless and until we get to know personal details about these women, their “evidence” cannot be unassailable or indisputable. Some or even all of them could be tangled in untruths.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Still, Tsvangirai messed up big time, especially over Karimatsenga, but the big difference is that he happens to be on the wrong side of the political fence. In present-day Zimbabwe, you can literally get away with murder if you happen to be on the right side of the political fence. Ask no further than the killers of MDC activists Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya who are still roaming free 12 years after the brutal murders despite being identified and a High Court order that they be prosecuted.
Now there are calls for Tsvangirai’s arrest and persecution for bigamy and perjury, led by none other than Jonathan Moyo. This did not escape Attorney-General Johannes Tomana, who this week said: “If everyone is involved in the case, this will influence the judgment. The offence becomes a non-offence even if there is an offence if it is made public prematurely.”
Wrote Moyo this week in a crass piece titled Morgan Tsvangirai now a sex-crazed polygamist: “Meanwhile, the career-defining collapse of Tsvangirai’s white wedding to Elizabeth Macheka whose date yesterday had been mischievously plotted to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the Global Political Agreement has brought into sharp perspective the widely held proposition in the sociology of sex and politics that while some men seek sex to get power others seek power to get sex.”
May I in turn ask: Are some politicians going crazy? Or are the crazy going political?
This is political hatred in the purest sense we have grown accustomed to from Moyo. President Robert Mugabe himself, like Tsvangirai, has been Moyo’s bête noire — object of hate — not once, but twice, and we could still be counting to reach thrice and more because of Moyo’s flip-flopping nature.
This is a soul-destroying hatred of one another; the idea that it is not enough to simply achieve one’s political aims, it is necessary to obliterate the other side. He should learn from his party colleague Mutsvangwa, who while clear that Tsvangirai is their political rival, was still civil enough to attend the wedding.
Two of the answers Americans gave in a survey as to why they still stood by Clinton were that: a President is a human being, with all the temptations; and while lying is seldom acceptable, lying about sex is something most of us do. That’s why scandalising and criminalising intimate personal behaviour doesn’t work.
That’s why as more and more charges were thrown against him, Clinton’s approval ratings rose higher and higher, driving his accusers crazy. Moyo may actually be doing Tsvangirai a favour, a great one.
Said political commentator Pedzisayi Ruhanya: “So, if given a choice, do you think the public will choose a murderous party over a polygamist?”
