Harare High Court okays Tsvangirai weddingBy KITSEPILE NYATHI in Harare | Thursday, September 13  2012 at  11:38

A Zimbabwe High Court has dismissed an application by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s former lover seeking to stop his wedding on Saturday.

Ms Locardia Karimatsenga Tembo had filed an urgent High Court injunction, arguing that she was Mr Tsvangirai’s wife under customary law.

She argued that allowing the wedding to go ahead would prejudice another application she filed last week, demanding $15,000 in monthly maintenance from President Robert Mugabe’s rival.

But Justice Antonia Guvava ruled that the wedding must go ahead as customary marriages could not be used as a basis to challenge the nuptials.

She said Ms Karimatsenga had not exhausted available channels before approaching the High Court for recourse.

“This is no urgency in the matter. There was an alternative remedy and the applicant can file an objection even at this stage,” Judge Guvava ruled.

Customarily married

“The applicant will not suffer any irreparable damages as she has enough time to file her objections with the marriage officer at the magistrates’ court.

“That was the remedy available when she got to know that the wedding would go on.”

Ms Karimatsenga claimed in her 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.

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

The PM has been linked to several women before settling for Ms Macheka, a widow and daughter of a leading official in President Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.

Over a dozen southern African leaders have been invited for the high profile wedding at one of Harare’s plush lodges.