Tsvangirai – Mugabe’s only serious rival
THE death of Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in a South African hospital last week has thrown the pro-democracy movement into disarray five months before a crucial general election.
Tsvangirai, 65, who succumbed to cancer of the colon, was the presidential candidate of a grand coalition of seven political parties, the MDC Alliance.
Stephen Chan, a professor of world politics at the University of London, who has written extensively on the Zimbabwean opposition politician, says the country has lost “a man of conspicuous courage”.
“He took the country’s political scene by storm, becoming President Robert Mugabe’s only serious rival for the better part of two decades, and campaigned until the end for a better country with greater democracy and transparency,” says Chan, author of a 2006 book, Citizen of Africa: Conversations with Morgan Tsvangirai.
His death means the coalition must go back to the drawing board and choose a new candidate, but analysts say the process could be fraught with immense difficulties because Tsvangirai’s party, the mainstream Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has been torn asunder by internal factionalism as his three deputies vied to succeed him.
Three factions, each led by a vice-president, emerged when the opposition leader’s health deteriorated rapidly in recent months.
One faction convened a national council meeting in Harare last week and announced that Nelson Chamisa, 40, a former student leader and one of the founders of the MDC in 1999, would be at the helm of the party for the next 12 months.
His critics say he was not elected for the post of vice-president but was hand-picked by Tsvangirai.
Elias Mudzuri, 60, a former mayor of the capital Harare, boycotted the national council meeting chaired by Chamisa.
Mudzuri was hand-picked by Tsvangirai and appointed a vice-president, much to the chagrin of some party members.
MDC youths had threatened to beat him up if he entered Harvest House, the party headquarters located in Harare’s central business district.
As the factional intrigue within the MDC escalated, the party’s secretary-general, Douglas Mwonzora, announced that he was disregarding Chamisa’s claim to power and would convene a properly constituted congress to elect Tsvangirai’s successor.
Mwonzora says in terms of the party constitution the only elected vice-president, Thokozani Khupe, 54, must assume the role of acting president until an elective congress is convened.
Khupe, a former trade unionist who wields influence in the party’s powerful southern and western districts, has previously criticised Tsvangirai for appointing the additional two unelected vice-presidents.
But who is Morgan Tsvangirai and why is his life story important?
Routinely demonised by Mugabe and his regime as a neo-colonial stooge and traitor, he received international acclaim for courageously opposing one of Africa’s most repressive regimes through the strategy of non-violent protest.
Born in 1952 in the then Rhodesia, Tsvangirai was the eldest of nine children. The son of a bricklayer, he left secondary school at 22 to work at Trojan Mine, a major producer of nickel in the country. He became actively involved in labour union politics, eventually rising to the helm of the powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions in 1988.
Tsvangirai was one of the pro-democracy campaigners who successfully thwarted Mugabe’s attempts to form a one-party state in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After the 1997 unity accord which brought together Zimbabwe’s two liberation movements, Zanu and PF-Zapu, to form Zanu-PF, there was no formidable political opposition.
Mugabe, determined to create a one-party state, cracked down on political dissent. Trade unionism and student politics emerged as alternative voices of opposition.
Owing to his modest education and blue-collar background, Tsvangirai was often lampooned by Mugabe as uneducated, primitive and lacking the sophistication to run a nation.
To his credit, the opposition leader never masqueraded as a messiah. Riding on his undoubted personal and political courage, he connected effortlessly with ordinary Zimbabweans, becoming a source of unyielding hope to millions of long-suffering citizens.
Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard likened him in 2012 to pro-democracy figureheads such as South Africa’s Nelson Mandela or Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi. His critics said the lofty praise was rather fulsome.
“Tsvangirai is a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgement,” former US ambassador to Harare Christopher Dell said in a diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks in 2009. “He is an indispensable element for opposition success… but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power.”
Chan says the criticism has often been misplaced. When Tsvangirai formed the MDC in 1999, it was an amorphous amalgam of numerous interest groups.
There were unionists, students, academics, farmers, civil society formations and community groups. The skilful manner in which a supposedly uneducated campaigner melded all these groups to form a powerful opposition movement has baffled analysts.
Over the years, Tsvangirai transformed into an organic political leader, a deep thinker, a solid democrat, an honest man and a patient leader.
After he defeated Mugabe in a 2008 presidential election, the results were withheld for five weeks as the military leaned on Mugabe to dig in and refuse defeat. With his back against the wall, Mugabe resorted to violence, leading to the murder of more than 200 MDC supporters. Tsvangirai withdrew from the run-off election, citing the violence.
Mugabe claimed victory but was forced by the international community to share power with Tsvangirai in a government of national unity. The MDC leader became prime minister and from 2009 to 2013 Zimbabwe’s comatose economy showed remarkable signs of revival. The hyperinflation which had decimated people’s life savings was brought to a halt and food stocks returned to the shop shelves.
Zimbabweans attributed the economic revival to Tsvangirai’s efforts. While the economy improved significantly during the power-sharing government’s tenure, the political and electoral reforms which Tsvangirai had promised took a back seat. Critics described how, instead of demanding political reforms, he giggled like a besotted schoolgirl when enjoying tea with Mugabe at State House.
Mugabe facilitated the purchase of a palatial mansion for Tsvangirai in Harare’s leafy suburb of Highlands. A total of US$2.5 million in taxpayers’ funds was spent amid allegations that the MDC leader pocketed some of the money. A police docket was prepared but Mugabe blocked Tsvangirai’s arrest. In January, Mugabe’s successor Emmerson Mnangagwa assured an ailing Tsvangirai the state was giving him the mansion.
Tsvangirai’s lasting legacy is that he defiantly opposed Mugabe at a time when it was dangerous to cross the path of one of Africa’s most brutal dictators. Mnangagwa’s government says he will be accorded a state-assisted funeral.
Tsvangirai is survived by six children and his wife, Elizabeth Macheka.
Brezhnev Malaba is deputy editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, a privately owned weekly based in Harare.
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