Former Zimbabwe prime minister and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai died late Wednesday evening in South Africa.
Mr. Tsvangirai had been suffering from colon cancer for at least two years. His condition began to worsen in recent weeks despite treatment. However, he continued to put on a brave face, even tweeting in late January that reports of his impending death were premature.
https://twitter.com/mrtsvangirai/status/956917761120358401
Morgan Tsvangirai was born on March 10, 1952, in the southern district of Gutu. His father was a bricklayer. His mother worked as a subsistence farmer. Tsvangirai’s first job was as a plant operator at Trojan Nickel Mine in the northern town of Bindura. He soon entered union politics, becoming the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary-general in 1988. Under his leadership, the group made the bold move of breaking ranks with Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, less than ten years after Zimbabwe won independence.
Tsvangirai led strikes against tax increases in 1997 and twice forced Mugabe to withdraw announced hikes. Those two victories against Mugabe helped launch the political rivalry between Tsvangirai and Mugabe, a former guerrilla leader who enjoyed almost total political control of Zimbabwe.
With help from other labor and civil-rights leaders, Tsvangirai found the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999. It was the first party since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 to pose a major threat to Mugabe. In 2000, the MDC won its first political battle against ZANU-PF when it defeated constitutional changes that Tsvangirai said would have entrenched Mugabe’s rule. For nearly twenty years he fought but failed to unseat Mugabe as president. Violence, accusations of election rigging and voter intimidation frequently accompanied many of the campaign races between the two.
In the 2008 elections, Tsvangirai won 47 percent of the vote, against Mugabe’s 43 percent, but fell short of the number needed to avoid a second round. Tsvangirai then boycotted the runoff, citing intimidation and harassment of his supporters. Mugabe went on to win the presidency but following months of negotiations and pressure from regional and international leaders, Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister as part of a power-sharing government that lasted from 2009-2013.
The arrangement wasn’t the easiest but Tsvangirai was reported to have described his political nemesis as “very accommodative and charming” during the early days of the coalition government.
One of his former advisers, Alex Magisa, praised Tsvangirai for his willingness to work with Mugabe.
“In 2008, he did something very incredible,” Magisa said. “He won the election, he was the most popular politician at the time. He could have been stubborn, but he decided to do what was necessary for the people of Zimbabwe. He compromised and worked with Mugabe.”
Mr. Tsvangirai’s death comes a few months before Zimbabwe decides who will be its next president. Current president, Emerson Mnangagwa is seeking re-election. Mnangagwa took over after Mugabe resigned in 2017, ending 37 years in power.
Tsvangirai is survived by his second wife, Elizabeth, and six children. His first wife, Susan, died in a car crash in 2009.
Morgan Tsvangirai was 65.
