By John V Sserwaniko
Credible details have emerged showing how fallen Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangarai’s former wife (Locardia Karimatsenga Tembo) created proximity with President Museveni who she eventually influenced on the UTL deal. Today Monday Daily Monitor correctly reported that Museveni-chaired Cabinet recently voted to sell Uganda Telecom Ltd (UTL) to Taleology Holdings GIB Ltd, a Nigerian company in a deal that was brokered by Tsvangarai’s widow Elizabeth Macheka. The newspaper reported that by paying Shs268bn, the Nigerian company would acquire 67% shares in UTL making GoU a minority shareholder (with 33%). The true Tsvangarai spouse identity is Locardia Karimatsenga Tembo, an Apostle running Nation of Glory Church Ministries in South Africa.
WINNING OVER M7;
Reliable State House sources close to the President have told this news website how Locardia first won the big man’s trust. “She was brought and introduced to him as someone who had a very big project on HIV-Aids. She was working with medical research scientists from Israel. They were undertaking a major research aimed at finding cure to HIV. They wanted an appropriate country where to conduct lab trials and someone told her Uganda was the best country to do it from given its leader’s outspokenness in the historical fight against HIV and the damage it caused to Uganda,” says a State House aide. “The President was very excited and indeed told her delegation members they couldn’t have found a better place to do this from than Uganda. It was agreed they could conduct trials on some members of the armed forces and the medicine was successfully tried out. The results were very good indicating the medicine combinations by the Israel researchers obliterated the virus from the human body. The President was of course very happy to see Uganda participating in such a major breakthrough research undertaking. What is now pending confirmation is whether the same medicine combination totally eliminates the virus even from the human cells.” The State House sources said this is something the President is very excited about because once it succeeds, the profile of Uganda as a country will rise in the anti-HIV movement.
GETS M7 HOTLINE;
As team leader and contact person for the Israel group, Locardia was permitted to have the President’s hotline meaning she could call him anytime to consult or update him on the progress of the research outcomes. “The project has been highly confidential but very intensive. She has had to have audience with the H/E at least once a month for the Israel teams to have one on one meetings to brief him on the progress of the research because he is the Commander-in-Chief responsible for the armed forces members on whom lab trials are being conducted to establish the efficacy of the medicines,” says a reliable source close to Museveni. Having built sufficient rapport and confidence, Locardia then started discussing the matter UTL for which GoU has been seeking an investor. Nigerians are fellows Locardia can easily do business with because she grew up fellowshipping with the Harare branch of Synagogue Church of All Nations founded by Ps TB Joshua, an influential Nigerian figure. In Harare this church is for the A-listers just like Robert Kayanja’s Rubaga Miracle Center is in Kampala. In fact it’s here that younger Locardia became very close friends with Vimbai Tsvangarai whose father Morgan would later become Zimbabwe Prime Minister. Vimbai is one of Morgan’s oldest children and Locardia was to later become his wife following the tragic death of Suzan (his wife for 30 years) in a car accident outside Harare. The accident occurred in June 2009. Until Locardia came into the picture, many in the Museveni cabinet considered it a done deal Mauritius Telecom was destined to take the UTL deal. “She ably explained to the President regarding the potential of Taleology Holdings largely because of the prolific telecom figures behind it. These are heavily connected men with a lot of history and understanding of the telecom sector not only in Africa but Asia and Middle East. She clearly explained to the H/E that money wasn’t a problem for those guys. Some ministers were saying the Shs268bn Taleology had quoted was too much for a company that was just starting without much past experience to its name but Locardia told the H/E there is no way raising money would be a problem when you have big renowned telecom names like Adrian Wood [of the UK]. He is the man who trained and nurtured the excellent CEOs now running MTN in Africa and Middle Eastern economies. She assured him they simply needed to be given the offer and the rest would fall into place because they have the know-how and raising funding can’t be a problem given who they know in the world’s finance system,” the State House source explained.
M7 SWINGS THRU RUGUNDA;
In the end the cabinet subcommittee report (authored by a team led by Attorney General William Byaruhanga) was ready. It was consolidated with earlier Finance Intelligence Authority (FIA) assessments profiling the two financially most viable firms bidding for the UTL deal. These were Mauritius Telecom which offered Shs167bn ($45m) and was on the verge of getting the deal. The other was Locardia-backed Taleology Holdings GIB whose Shs268bn ($71m) was initially dismissed by many as unrealistic for such a nascent entity to deliver upon. This report was brought to cabinet on 17th September but the debate was too polarized and Museveni (who sources say had already endorsed Taleology) realized it wasn’t going to be possible to arrive at a decision. He referred the matter for further scrutiny and tasked Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda to lead a small committee that would have one week to study the document and report back to the next cabinet recommending one firm.
REFERRING TO RAMAPHOSA;
On his team, Rugunda had Frank Tumwebaze, David Bahati, William Byaruhanga & Gen Moses Ali. He had just one week to report back at the next Cabinet meeting. Museveni kept saying a lot of time had been lost and wasn’t going to tolerate any further foot-dragging on the UTL matter. One of the people the Rugunda committee interfaced with was Locardia who had to fly in all the way from South Africa just to come speak to them. Apparently the big man had insisted it was important they interface with her to deepen their understanding of the profiles of the veteran telecom executives involved in Taleology Holdings and the firm’s capacity to raise the Shs268bn they had indicated in their offer. “She spoke to us very eloquently and when someone seemed skeptical as to what she was saying by asking if there are people out there that would testify about the credentials of the group she represent, she [Locardia] turned to look at the Prime Minister and told him ‘one of them is [SA President] Ramaphosa.’ She said it was very easy talking to him and even offered to bring him on line for members to ask him any verificational questions corroborating what she had said,” one of the Rugunda committee members told this news website. “Before the PM could even respond, she was already dialing the phone to reach Ramaphosa. The Prime Minister said it’s not necessary, we have understood and this is enough. She left but we clearly got the impression she was this highly connected lady in the high places.” On 23rd September the designated day for the report, Rugunda had travelled to New York to represent the President for the UN General Assembly. He delegated Moses Ali to read the report. Gen Ali started by telling the President he had a feeling some of the members he worked with were biased in favor of Mauritius Telecom. He referred to David Bahati calling him “a colleague that has already been contaminated.” Tumwebaze was absent and Ali said he was fairly okay but made uncharitable characterization of the AG William Byaruhanga. Cabinet sources say the unusually very eloquent Ali made a strong case favoring Taleology Holdings which in the end carried the day. But Bahati, who uncharacteristically lost his composure, showed unprecedented anger towards Gen Ali. “Your Excellence this isn’t proper for my senior colleague to make such characterization of me. How do you refer to a colleague as contaminated? I insist that before we proceed this gets expunged from the cabinet record because it’s going to discourage other colleagues in future to become timid when given cabinet assignments.” There was much more during this stormy UTL discussion in cabinet that some ministers wept as their foes complimented Moses Ali’s report favoring Taleology Holdings.
LOCARDIA PROFILE;
The high-flying styled up 45 year old lady has a degree in Business Management from Speciss College in Harare. For high school, she went to upscale Queen Elizabeth School in Harare. Her father Tembo was one of the most successful black property brokers in the Harare of her childhood. So she clearly grew up in a well to do middle class family where she had plentiful access to modernity and whatever she desired in life as a child growing up in the 1980s. Her birth place Mazowe (where the renowned wealthy Tembo family have their ancestry) is just 20kms outside Harare CBD. She says it was a family of strong Christian values the very reason she is an Apostle today. At 26 years, she birthed her only child Tanaka whose father Ben Muchedzi is the one she cohabited with before moving on to subsequently wed Morgan in November 2011. She grew up frequently travelling to nearby South Africa (for things like shopping) and it’s where she first closely met Morgan and swept him off his feet in 2010. Zimbabwean media sources show that they bumped into each at Oliver Tambo International Airport in South Africa, exchanged contacts and talked later. Morgan was Prime Minister and had just lost his Susan (spouse for 30 years) in a tragic car accident in 2009. It remained a rumor that the two were secretly seeing each other until months later when they publicly appeared together to attend US televangelist Joyce Meyer’s Christian crusade in Harare’s Celebration Center. For Morgan it was time to make things official as a rumored sex relationship was bad enough for the Premier he was. Locardia’s sister Beatrice Biata Nyamupinga (a ZANU-PF MP) let the cat out telling reporters that indeed the PM had been engaged to Locardia during a traditional marriage ceremony at Mazowe where he paid $36,000 in bride price (lobola). On knowing that the gorgeous lady their widowed leader was dating was a sibling to an influential Robert Mugabe ally, the MDC leaders hit the roof and vowed to frustrate the marriage, a thing that greatly upset Morgan who had preferred a very private engagement to Locardia. He gradually bought into the propaganda by the MDC hardliners and called it off with Locardia in 2012. The MDC colleagues insisted he marries Leah Mhundwa (Susan’s sister) who had become caretaker mother for the children. Having come to the conclusion it was possible Mugabe’s party were out to use Locardia to spy on him, Morgan showed his preference to marry Elizabeth Macheka something Locardia vehemently opposed. She run to court seeking to prevent the impending marriage and in the end in a carefully negotiated settlement, she accepted $15,000 in monthly upkeep to let go of the famous man who made it clear he wasn’t interested in the relationship anymore. Locardia moved on to South Africa where she joined a local church whose local neighborhood cell group grew into the Nation of Glory Church for which she is now the main pastor. She is always reluctant discussing the Morgan break up because of the very traumatizing and frenzied reporting the Harare tabloids and mainstream media subjected her to. She is now a very successful evangelist in SA and besides ministry work, she does charity (doling out food to the needy) in the ghettoes of Diepsloot poor neighborhood where her fast-growing church is situated. Besides ministry work, she leverages on her powerful connections in some of Africa’s presidential palaces to cut deals (as a power broker) and in return be paid generous commission packages like she is surely going to earn off the UTL deal.
