HARARE – Social media went crazy over the past few days after the mature Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs minister, Cain Mathema, wed his young bride last week.
A member of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF, Mathema — who turns 70 on January 25 next year — last Thursday exchanged vows with Diana Bathabetsoe Nare, 23, at the pair’s well-attended wedding which was held at the Southerton Comfort Lodge in Bulawayo.
In addition to lighting up social media, the wedding has also become the talk of the town in the City of Kings, as well as in Tsholotsho — where Mathema hails from — primarily because of the age difference between the couple and how they met.
The lovebirds are said to have met at Bulawayo’s Mhlahlandlela Government Complex in 2014, where Mathema operates from, and where the bride had come for her industrial attachment.
“I attended both the wedding and the reception. Both the events attracted a huge crowd. The age factor was the main agenda of discussion among even those who turned up to witness the event,” a neighbour of the minister told the Daily News yesterday.
In 2009, Mathema was dragged before the Tsholotsho Magistrate’s Court for maintenance after he had allegedly impregnated and entered into a customary union with his then wife’s 20-year-old domestic worker.
In a video clip that has been shared widely on social media over the past few days, a gregarious Mathema is seen dancing very energetically with his new better half.
Mathema joins a distinguished list of Mugabe’s team, who include the nonagenarian himself, who have wedded youthful women.
Mugabe, who turns 93 in February next year, married powerful First Lady Grace Mugabe in 1996, with the age difference between the two being 42 years.
Just before he died, former Foreign Affairs minister Stanley Mudenge, had started living with a 21-year-old woman.
Similarly, the late former Health minister, Herbert Ushewokunze, was said to have sired more than 15 children with different young women.Dailynews