Zimbabwean PM Tsvangirai sued by ex-lover

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been sucked into a fresh love row after his ex-fiancée filed for US$15,000 monthly maintenance just a week before his wedding.

Ms Lorcadia Karimatsenga Tembo claimed in a High Court application that Mr Tsvangirai customarily married her in November last year and asked for a white wedding.

The marriage lasted 12 days and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader issued a public statement saying he had ended the relationship because of interference from his political rivals.

Six months later he got engaged to his new wife Ms Elizabeth Macheka and the couple’s high profile wedding has been set for September 15.

But Ms Tembo has revealed for the first time in her court application that Mr Tsvangirai continued to stay with her even after he disassociated himself from her.

She also claimed that she lived with the PM’s mother at their rural home for two months before she fell pregnant.

Ms Tembo said Mr Tsvangirai locked her out of their rented accommodation and stopped communicating with her after she had a miscarriage.

The Harare businesswoman says she now wants President Robert Mugabe’s fierce rival to maintain her lavish lifestyle, which he had been funding.

“(Mr) Morgan Tsvangirai is my husband,” Ms Tembo said in her claim. “He married me on November 21, 2011 and has been supporting me until I was discharged from hospital in South Africa.

“Mr Tsvangirai proposed to marry me in September 2011.

“I accepted the proposal and he then made arrangements to meet my parents and to pay lobola in terms of the African customary tradition.”

Her $15 000 claim was broken down to $3 000 will be for rent, $4 000 for groceries, $1 500 for clothing allowance, $500 for electricity, $1 200 for telephone, $500 for maid, $300 for gardener, $1000 for motor vehicle and fuel, $700 for medical aid, $250 for water, $1700 for hair and beauty and $350 for a driver.

Mr Tsvangirai’s wife Susan died in 2009 in a car accident.