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Bulawayo Bureau
A well-known Plumtree prostitute fled from a local bar on Sunday after an altercation with former senator and Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Mr Lutho Tapela over a long standing grudge.The commercial sex worker, only identified as Anele, confirmed the fracas which happened at about 9pm, but declined to comment further.
Her close friend, who preferred anonymity, said the misunderstanding between the former deputy minister and Anele started early last year.
“Tapela proposed love to Anele while he was having a relationship with her sister who is also a sex worker,” Anele’s friend said.
The woman added: “That angered Anele who started accusing Mr Tapela of infecting her sister with HIV and being an immature man. The two have been constantly having misunderstandings since then and had some of them in public.”
She said on Sunday, the fight started when Mr Tapela met Anele in the bar and accused her of being “a loose woman”.
“Anele was at the bar and she was playing around with a man who was sitting close to Mr Tapela,” she said. “Mr Tapela started accusing her of being a loose woman who was only concerned with sleeping with several men and drinking too much beer.
“They started exchanging harsh words. Mr Tapela threatened to beat her up and then he picked up one of the bar stools to hit her, but she ran out of the bar.”
The manager of the bar where the incident took place said although he was not in when the fracas occured, his subordinates briefed him about the incident.
He said customers expressed great disappointment over the actions of the former senator.
“I just received reports on the incident from staff members that were on duty on the day as I was not around. Some customers have even approached me with complaints on the behaviour of Mr Tapela who they say was fighting with Anele in public again,” the bar manager said.
“We experienced another incident involving him and the same woman some time last year. They caused a scene at the bar with their fighting and I had to intervene as they were disturbing customers with their shouting and I had to order them out of the bar,” said the manager.
He said Mr Tapela was a regular at the bar.
Contacted for comment, Mr Tapela dismissed the incident as stupid and refused to respond to questions from this reporter.
“I had already heard that you are going around looking for information on this issue. I am not going to dignify this issue with a comment.
This is just a stupid issue,” he said.
“If you persist in seeking a comment I will not answer your phone call.”
Online Reporter