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, which his office has been vehemently denying in the last two weeks.
Mr Tsvangirai announced that he is ending the barely three-week-old union, which was reportedly cemented in a traditional ceremony at Ms Tembo’s home in Christon Bank.
Mr Tsvangirai’s admission left his spokesperson Mr Luke Tamborinyoka with egg on the face as he all along had been denying that his boss married Ms Tembo.
In a statement, Mr Tsvangirai was at pains to lay the blame for the collapse of the relationship on everyone else, except himself.
He claimed that the media was largely responsible, by putting the issue under the spotlight.
“The ‘marriage’ has been hijacked and there is an apparent active political hand that is now driving the processes. State security agents have also weighed in to force and direct proceedings, which have resulted in everything regarding the relationship now taking place in camera, with the public media journalists in tow,” said Mr Tsvangirai.
He said his original intention was to make things work between him and Ms Tembo and he apologised to Zimbabweans for any discomfort caused by his actions.
“Like every cultured Zimbabwean, on Friday 18 November 2011, I sent a delegation to the Karimatsenga family homestead to perform traditional and cultural rites to formalise this relationship.
“I want to admit that the last two weeks have been particularly bad for me, my children, my family and even ordinary Zimbabweans who have sought to find meaning to this sordid saga. Reputations have been bruised and mutual trust upon which such relations are built and maintained has been lost,” said Mr Tsvangirai.The PM said his relationship with Ms Tembo had been irretrievably damaged, to a point where marriage had become inconceivable. “I have followed the traditional and cultural route and I have communicated my position through the same channel to inform the Karimatsengas of my position,” he said.
Mr Tsvangirai said he had become a spectator in the relationship with things happening too fast, on camera without his knowledge.
“This has led me to conclude that there is a greater and thicker plot around this issue which has undermined my confidence in this relationship,” he said.
Mr Tsvangirai said when the right time came and when he found the right person fit to be a reliable partner and mother to his children, he would inform the nation.
News of the PM’s marriage was first announced in the Press on 22 November.
He reportedly paid US$36 000 lobola for Ms Tembo, a Harare business- woman.
Acknowledging the marriage, Ms Tembo’s sister, Cde Biata Beatrice Nyamupinga, the Zanu-PF legislator for Goromonzi, at one point said politics would be kept out of the marriage because the two belonged to different political parties.
Following denials by Mr Tamborinyoka that the traditional rite to solemnise the marriage had taken place, the Karimatsenga family threatened to release video footage of the event.
The story took a new twist on Tuesday when sources said the PM was taking long to publicly announce his marriage to Ms Tembo because he had promised to marry another Harare woman in December.
On Friday, the leader of the rival MDC, Prof Welshman Ncube, attacked PM Tsvangirai labelling him a “frail and inconsistent leader as seen by his shifting positions over his purported marriage”.
He said one day, people hear that Tsvangirai was married, the next morning, the story would be different and he would be refuting the marriage.
Prof Ncube said such inconsistencies showed that the PM could not be trusted to lead the country.
PM Tsvangirai has earned the bed hopper tag after being linked to several women since the death of his wife on 6 March 2009.
He has been linked to his late wife’s sister Leah Mhundwa, the caretaker mother for his six children. His office again denied the alleged love affair.
Eyebrows were also raised and speculation swelled that he had found a new love in Dr Akirana Chihombori when the two appeared together at South African President Jacob Zuma’s inauguration in 2009.
Again his office denied the two were lovers, saying she was his niece.
He was also involved in a bitter affair that spilled into the courts when a Bulawayo man, Mr Jacob Mandeya, accused him of snatching his wife of 12 years, Mrs Aquilina Kayidza Pamberi.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai also reportedly impregnated a 23-year-old Bulawayo woman, Ms Lerato Nyathi.
Online Reporter