Local Chief Fines Zimbabwe PM Farm Animals over Wedding Date

A local chieftain has fined Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai two cows and two sheep for flouting a cultural law and marrying during the month of November, a local daily reported.

Local media had announced that Tsvangirai, 59, married Harare businesswoman Locadia Tembo, whose sister is a lawmaker for President Robert Mugabe's party, at a traditional ceremony on November 21.

The prime minister reportedly paid a bride price, known as lobola, of $36,000 and 15 cattle to his new in-laws.

Twelve days later Tsvangirai announced that he was ending the relationship, claiming that he had paid the Tembo family damages after getting the woman pregnant with twins.

Chief Negomo of Chiweshe in Mashonaland Central fined the prime minister two cows, two sheep and ten meters of white fabric for having paid the bride price during the holy month of November.

His new "wife" was fined two cows, two sheep and a goat for accepting the offer.

Tsvangirai has made it clear that his doesn't recognize the jurisdiction of the traditional chief.

His first wife Susan died and Tsvangirai was seriously injured after a car crash in 2009.

Tsvangirai's spokesman Douglas Mwonzora dismissed the judgment as political machinations orchestrated by Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

President Mugabe's is seeking elections next year and to rally his divided ranks behind his campaign to defeat Tsvangirai.

No date has been set for elections to choose a government to replace the transitional power-sharing pact created after 2008 polls collapsed in a deadly spiral of violence that left more than 200 of Tsvangirai's supporters dead, according to rights groups.