This week, there was hype around Elizabeth’s trip to Sydney, Australia, amid suspicions in government circles that she could have abandoned her ailing husband in South Africa or that the mother of two could still be seeing one of her ex-husbands.
Tsvangirai wed Elizabeth (nee Macheka) in September 2012. Before her marriage to the former prime minister, Elizabeth bore two daughters from her previous marriages –Rumbidzaishe Sharon Guma and Tashinga Ngirazi.
As the clock ticks towards make-or-break elections next year, the governing party is pulling everything out of its bag of tricks, including attempts to destabilise MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s five-year-old marriage to Elizabeth Macheka in the hope of weakening the former trade unionist’s presidential election bid.
The Daily News can report that Tsvangirai’s wife, Elizabeth, has been under the microscopic lenses of State agents prying into her activities in a bid to extract dirt they could use to sidetrack the MDC leader who, despite his troubling health, remains President Robert Mugabe’s strongest challenger at the forthcoming polls.
Elizabeth and her daughters flew to Sydney and are expected back on October 5 via Emirates flight EK713.
Just before flying out, Elizabeth’s ex-husband Kennedy Ngirazi reportedly called a National Handling Services check-in agent to help her with her luggage saying she was running late. This fuelled speculation Tsvangirai’s wife, who checked in as Elizabeth Guma at the Harare International Airport, could have been joined by one of her ex-husband in Australia.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Ngirazi said he was not involved in Elizabeth’s travel.
“People say stupid things; people should not include me in their fights. Vanhu varikuda nyaya pasina, hapana nyaya mdara. (People just like to gossip even when there is no story). Why should I sponsor their trips? Don’t they have their own resources?” said Ngirazi.
Tsvangirai, speaking through his spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka, yesterday said Elizabeth was in Australia to attend the graduation ceremony of her daughter Rumbidzai.
Rumbidzaishe Sharon will receive her bachelor’s degree in Commerce today from the prestigious University of Newcastle.
Tsvangirai could not travel with his wife to Australia because he had been told by doctors to avoid stress and strain until he fully recovers.
The former Prime Minister allowed his wife to travel with her two children, as he recuperates in South Africa.
He is now out of hospital after being airlifted from Harare two weeks ago following the sudden onset of severe vomiting.
Tsvangirai has been receiving treatment for colon cancer in the neighbouring country since last year.
Tamborinyoka said: “Mrs Tsvangirai, who will rejoin her husband in South Africa soon, is currently in Australia for the graduation of her daughter, Rumbidzaishe Sharon, who was a student at the University of Newcastle.
“Rumbi will be graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the graduation ceremony set for tomorrow. Mrs Tsvangirai’s daughter will now proceed to do two Masters’ Degree programmes, a Master’s in Business Administration and another Master’s in Applied Finance.
“Mrs Tsvangirai went to Australia with no one else but her two other children, Mutsa and Tashinga and they will constitute the three guests per student required by the university for tomorrow’s graduation ceremony.
“We know why and by whom Mrs Tsvangirai is being fought, especially at such a time when she is standing by her husband, our dear president Tsvangirai, who remains the only source of hope for the despondent people of Zimbabwe.”
He also rubbished claims that Ngirazi accompanied Elizabeth to Australia.
“For the record, Mr Ngirazi did not go to Australia but filed an affidavit in Harare for his child Tashinga who is under 18 years of age and who would need such an affidavit in line with Australian regulations.
