Categories: News

Double jeopardy for Tsvangirai

The late Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai had an overwhelming send-off but he has left splitting headaches in the two things that were close to his heart- his family and the party.

Both, the family and the party are split.

The family has been forced to get two executors of his real estate because his wife Elizabeth does not seem to agree with his first wife Susan’s children and Tsvangirai’s brothers.

Tsvangirai’s mother threatened to hang herself if Elizabeth and Nelson Chamisa attended her son’s funeral but they both attended with Chamisa being the key speaker at all functions.

Elizabeth was humiliated and the excuse was that she had married a polygamous man and could therefore not get special treatment.

Ironically, no other woman seems to be claiming Tsvangirai’s estate though reports say Elizabeth has two of Tsvangirai’s children by another woman on her side.

Now the High Court, according to Newsday has appointed two executors for Tsvangirai’s Estate, Innocent Chagonda representing Elizabeth and Jonathan Samkange representing the Tsvangirai family.

In the party Chamisa has taken over the reins but has fired Thokozani Khupe who says she is going it alone but will retain the MDC-T name.

The Chamisa led faction has threatened to recall Khupe and expelled organising secretary Abednigo from Parliament.

Newsday, however, reports that Khupe and two others expelled from the party-Bhebhe and Obert Gutu- have not yet received their expulsion papers.

Both dramas are continuing to unfold and there is no clear winner yet.

While Elizabeth seems to have an upper hand in the family dispute, she could face a torrid time from Susan’s children and Tsvangirai’s brothers.

Chamisa also seems to have an upper hand but Khupe and her colleagues could also give him a few headaches because they are claiming that he breached the party constitution to grab party leadership.

Sadly, both tragedies could spill into election time and disrupt Chamisa’s campaign while the family dispute could open a can of worms if previous divorces of prominent politicians like Chombo and Marian, Chiyangwa and Elizabeth are anything to go by.

(765 VIEWS)

This post was last modified on March 31, 2018 5:50 pm

Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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