Zimbabwean politician Morgan Tsvangirai died at age 65, confirmed his spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka. The longtime foe of the former President Mugabe died last night.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the face of opposition politics in Zimbabwe and the MDC-T, had battled with colon cancer for at least two years, before his condition took a nosedive early this week, resulting in him being taken to the hospital’s intensive care unit, News24 reported.
“The MDC-T and Zimbabwe as a whole have been left poorer with his death,”
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka said.
Mr Tsvangirai served as Prime Minister of the coalition government between 2009 and 2013, and his death, which came just a few months before the 2018 general elections, has dealt a huge blow to the country’s opposition politics, where he had already been nominated as the MDC-T and MDC Alliance presidential candidate.
Morgan Tsvangirai was an outstanding political person in Zimbabwe
Tsvangirai was the son of a brick-layer. The oldest of nine children, he left school at 16 to become a textile weaver to support his family. His lack of formal education (rectified later through personal study) was used against him by Mugabe’s allies, who disparaged Tsvangirai as a “tea boy”.
Derided as a stooge of the West, denounced at countless ruling party meetings, Tsvangirai nevertheless rose to become the only politician with the weight to counter Mugabe.
His death leaves a massive void in Zimbabwean politics, Morgan Tsvangirai was ‘a veteran opposition fighter who never reached his goal’, said local newspapers.
