Zimbabwe: Last tilt at power for long-suffering Morgan Tsvangirai

Morgan Tsvangirai is the closest Zimbabwe has to a hero: an ex union leader who dared take on a dictator and paid a heavy price.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai speaks to the Associated Press at his home in Harare. Picture: AP

Morgan Tsvangirai is the closest a battered nation has to a hero: a former trade union leader who dared take on a dictator, for which he paid a heavy price in the form of beatings and the loss of his wife in a suspicious car crash.

Zimbabwe’s 13 million people are in the dark as to what is happening in their nation after a smiling President Robert Mugabe was pictured shaking hands with Zimbabwe’s military chief a day after the army seized power, throwing confusion over predictions that the 93-year-old’s nearly four-decade rule had come to an end.

Mugabe unexpectedly drove from his lavish “Blue Roof” compound in Harare, where he had been confined since troops took to the streets, to State House, where official media pictured him meeting military chief Constantino Chiwenga and South African ministers sent to mediate the crisis

However if, as expected, Emmerson Mnangagwa emerges as Zimbabwe’s new president, he will want the country’s veteran opposition leader by his side to win over a doubtful public who know him best as the Crocodile; a man with a bloody reputation acquired helping Mr Mugabe to quash dissent over decades.

Back-channel negotiations between Mr Mnangagwa and opposition groups, among them Mr Tsvangirai’s fractured Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), have been taking place for up to two years. Zimbabwe’s ousted white farmers, its influential liberation war veterans, and the wider military have also been approached.

Both sides have been wary — but with Mr Mugabe and his wife Grace under house arrest, aides to Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Mnangagwa are now talking about the future. The expected outcome is a deal that could be unveiled on Friday with Mr Mnangagwa as president and Mr Tsvangirai as deputy president or prime minister alongside other notable opposition figures in a new government.

For Mr Mnangagwa, 75, Mr Tsvangirai’s acceptance should bring with it large parts of the country that have backed the MDC in successive elections only to see their votes melt away amid allegations of rigging and international partners who are wary of a Zanu (PF)-only administration.

For Mr Tsvangirai, 65, it represents what is likely to be his last tilt at power. He is undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer, and it is expected that, should he join a putative “government of national unity”, he would delegate much of his authority to the MDC’s deputy leader, Nelson Chamisa.

His position is not without risk. He was criticised in some quarters for agreeing to form a coalition government with Zanu (PF) in 2008. But no one could deny his courage for standing up to Mr Mugabe.

The eldest of nine children, he had no formal education before becoming a trade unionist and moving into politics and was easily frustrated in his efforts to introduce reform by the wily president.

Morgan Tsvangirai and his wife Susan in 2003. Picture: AP

In 2009, while he was prime minister, Mr Tsvangirai was injured in a car crash that killed his wife, Susan. Many insist that the crash was no accident, but an attempted assassination.

Little has been said about when fresh elections, which are due to be held before July next year, will take place.

Mr Mnangagwa, for his part, has made it clear that he has no intention of leaving the ruling Zanu (PF) party, while MDC insiders have been talking up the chances of outright victory this time if it is a fair vote — so the potential for the centre of any unity group to hold will diminish with time.

The Times