Tsvangirai hints at his retirement

MORGAN Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said yesterday it was time for the older generation to step back and allow new hands to lead, raising prospects of leadership change in the party.

Former trade union leader Tsvangirai, who has been at the helm of the MDC since its formation in 1999, disclosed in June 2016 that he had cancer.

Last year, he spent weeks in a South African hospital receiving treatment.

Pictures of a frail Tsvangirai meeting President Emmerson Mnangagwa have increased calls that he consider giving way to a new opposition leader.

“I am looking at the imminent prospects of us as the older generation leaving the levers of leadership to allow the younger generation to take forward this huge task that we started together so many years ago with our full blessing and support,” Tsvangirai said.

“We must recognise the imperative that new hands must take this struggle and this country forward.”

Tsvangirai, 65, has been the opposition torch bearer since 2000.

His bitter rivalry with Mugabe, 93, was often punctuated by violence against opposition supporters.

In August, Tsvangirai reunited with former allies to a forge a coalition to challenge Zanu-PF in presidential and parliamentary elections due later this year. – Reuters