Morgan Tsvangirai

Morgan Richard Tsvangirai
File:Morgan Tsvangirai.jpg
President of the Movement for Democratic Change
Incumbent
Assumed office 2000
Personal details
Born	(1952-03-10) March 10, 1952 Gutu, Southern Rhodesia
Political party	Movement for Democratic Change
Height	5 ft (152 cm)'9
Spouse	Susan Tsvangirai
Residence(s)	Avondale, Harare
Occupation	President of the MDC
Website	http://www.mdc.co.zw

Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (English /ˈtʃɑːŋgəˈraɪ/; Shona IPA: [ts͡ɸaŋgiˈra.i]), born March 10, 1952) is a trade unionist, human rights activist, and President of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the majority party in Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai contested the 2008 presidential election results, which showed him winning only 47.9% of the votes cast, necessitating a run-off vote against incumbent Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai's MDC party released its own set of results showing an outright win over Mugabe with 50.3%.

Early life

Morgan Richard Tsvangirai was born in the Gutu area in then-Southern Rhodesia, the eldest of nine children and the son of a carpenter and bricklayer. After leaving school early, in 1974 he started working for the Trojan Nickel Mine in Mashonaland Central. He spent ten years at the mine, rising from plant operator to general foreman. His current rural home is Buhera which is 220km south east of Harare.

Political activism

Morgan Tsvangirai is a product of important social movements in Zimbabwe, which include the labour and constitutional reform movements. He is the former Secretary General of the powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and is the founding chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly, a group that advocates for a new constitution for Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai became branch chairman of the Associated Mine Workers Union and was later elected into the executive of the National Mine Workers Union, and in 1989 he became the Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the umbrella trade union organization in the country.

Tsvangirai led the ZCTU away from its alliance with the ruling Zanu PF. As his power and that of the movement grew, his relationship with the Government deteriorated. He has been a victim of premeditated and government-inspired harassment and violence, including three assassination attempts,, which include the 1997 attempt, where unknown assailants burst into his tenth story office and tried to throw him out of the window.

Criticism of Operation Gukurahundi

Three years after Zimbabwe won independence, Robert Mugabe ordered the Fifth Brigade, a specially trained (by North Korea) military unit, into Matabeleland in cohorts with the Minister Of Defence Enos Nkala, led by Air Marshal Perence Shiri because of suspicions of an alleged counter-revolution being planned by Joshua Nkomo. The operation was code named Gukurahundi. Morgan Tsvangirai questioned the motive of the massacre with the ZANU PF leadership in 1984 . Tsvangirai has periodically toured the mass graves of the victims in Tsholotsho, Kezi, Lupane, Nkayi and other places in Rural Matabeleland. Addressing villagers in Maphisa in 2001 he said:

This was a barbaric operation by Zanu-PF. It should never have happened. It was a sad episode in our history and the MDC will obviously want to see justice being done if it comes to power. Such human rights abuses should be revisited and those responsible will have to account for their actions.

National Constitutional Assembly

Morgan Tsvangirai served as Chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) in 1997 which was formed as a grouping of individual Zimbabwean citizens and civic organisations including, labour movements, student and youth groups, women groups, churches, business groups and human rights organisations. These individuals and groups formed the NCA to campaign for constitutional reform after realizing that the political, social and economic problems affecting Zimbabwe were mainly a result of the defective Lancaster House Constitution and can only be resolved through a new and democratic constitution. He stepped down after being elected president of the MDC.

The SOLIDAR Silver Rose Award

In 2001 Morgan Tsvangirai was awarded the prestigious 2001 Solidar Silver Rose Award.The award was for outstanding achievement by an individual or organisation in the activities of civil society and in bringing about a fairer and more just society.

At a crucial period for world stability, the Solidar Silver Rose Award winners “show the positive change that can be brought about by determined individuals and organisations”, the citation read.

Movement for Democratic Change

Main article: Movement for Democratic Change

In 1999 Tsvangirai founded and organized the Movement for Democratic Change, an opposition party opposed to Mugabe's rule, and help for the unexpected triumph of the defeat of the 2000 constitution referendum, on which Morgan Tsvangirai alongside the National Constitutional Assembly campaigned successfully for the 'NO' vote,against Robert Mugabe's Government led Constitution Referendum February 12 & 13 2000.

Tsvangirai lost the March 2002 presidential election to Robert Mugabe of the ruling Zanu-PF party. The election provoked widespread allegations that Mugabe had rigged the election, through the use of violence, media bias, and manipulation of the voter's roll, leading to abnormally high pro-Mugabe turnout in some areas.

Arrests and political intimidation

Tsvangirai was arrested after the 2000 elections and charged with treason; this charge was later dismissed. In 2004, Tsvangirai was acquitted of treason for an alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe in the run-up to the 2002 presidential elections. George Bizos, a South African human rights lawyer who was part of the team that defended Nelson Mandela & Walter Sisulu in the famous South African Rivonia Trial in 1964, headed Morgan Tsvangirai's defence team.

October 2000 arrest

Tsvangirai was arrested after the government alleged that he had threatened President Robert Mugabe. The Movement for Democratic Change leader had told 40,000 supporters at a rally in Harare that if Mr Mugabe did not want to step down before the next elections scheduled for 2002 "we will remove you violently". However Tsvangirai said that he was giving a warning to President Mugabe to consider history. "There is a long line of dictators who have refused to go peacefully - and the people have removed them violently", he said.

The courts dismissed the charges.

June 2003 arrest

In May 2003 Tsvangirai was arrested on a Friday afternoon shortly after giving a press conference, the government alleged he had incited violence. In the press conference he had said:

From Monday, June 2, up to today June 6, Mugabe was not in charge of this country. He was busy marshaling his forces of repression against the sovereign will of the people of Zimbabwe. However, even in the context of the brutalities inflicted upon them, the people's spirit of resistance was not broken. The sound of gunfire will never silence their demand for change and freedom.

March 2007 arrest and beating

On March 11, 2007 a day after his 55th birthday, Tsvangirai was arrested on his way to a prayer rally in the Harare township of Highfield.

File:Morgan in Hospital.jpeg

Morgan Tsvangirai talks to the media from his hospital bed after being arrested and beaten.

His wife was allowed to see him in prison, after which she reported that he had been heavily tortured by police, resulting in deep gashes on his head and a badly swollen eye. The event garnered an international outcry and was considered particularly brutal and extreme.

He was tortured by a crack commando unit based at the army’s Cranborne Barracks on March 12, 2007 after being arrested and held at Machipisa Police Station in the Highfield suburb of Harare.

1. Using sjamboks, army belts and gun butts, the soldiers attacked Tsvangirai until he passed out. One of the soldiers poured cold water all over Tsvangirai to resuscitate him. Tsvangirai regained consciousness again at around 1:30 a.m.... One vicious woman was left to work on him. She removed an army belt from her waist and used it to assault Tsvangirai until he passed out again.

   — 

   1. px, in Police Officer, Mail and Guardian

"He was in bad shape, he was swollen very badly. He was bandaged on the head. You couldn't distinguish between the head and the face and he could not see properly," Innocent Chagonda, an attorney, told Reuters after visiting a Harare police station where Tsvangirai was being held.

A Zimbabwean freelance cameraman, Edward Chikombo, smuggled television pictures of the badly injured Morgan Tsvangirai, opposition leader, out of the country following the beating.

Chikombo was later abducted from his home in the Glenview Township outside Harare. His body was discovered on the weekend near the village of Darwendale, 80 kilometres west of Harare.

This has been part of a pattern of abductions and punishment beatings that has become a terrifying nightly ritual in Zimbabwe, where scores of opposition activists and their relatives have been attacked by government sanctioned gangs using unmarked cars and police-issue weapons.

According to lawyer Tendai Biti, the Secretary-General of the MDC and an MP for Harare East, who was arrested along with Tsvangirai, Tsvangirai suffered a cracked skull and "must have passed out at least three times." Tsvangirai was subsequently admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a local hospital. Reports from BBC News indicate that Tsvangirai suffered from a fractured skull and received blood transfusions for internal bleeding. Although the incident was a clear case of political violence ordered by Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai has since had very little political support from surrounding African countries.

Raid at MDC headquarters

Tsvangirai was released, but on March 28 2007, Zimbabwean police stormed the Movement for Democratic Change 44 Harvest House national headquarters and once again arrested him, hours before he was to speak with the media about recent political violence in the country.

International reaction to political violence

The arrest of Tsvangirai and a crackdown on opposition officials that followed was widely condemned.

Australia - Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in a statement that the Zimbabwe government should immediately release those arrested, lift the ban on political activity and implement immediate reforms. The statement takes direct aim at the policies of President Mugabe, stating that:

"(the arrests) are clear signs of the Mugabe Government’s desperation to cling to power in the face of its growing unpopularity amongst the people of Zimbabwe. The Mugabe Government’s disastrous policies have crippled a once thriving economy, leaving Zimbabweans enduring hyper-inflation at over 1600%, over 80% of the population unemployed and living below the poverty line and with the lowest life expectancy of any country in the world."

Canada - On March 12 2007, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay issued a statement condemning the violence in Zimbabwe and simultaneously calling for the release of all arrested.

Ireland - In a statement, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern condemned the actions of the Zimbabwe authorities and called on that country's government to immediately cease all such activities and to adopt a new policy of dialogue and engagement with the outside world.

Mauritius - The Government of Mauritius issued a communiqué on March 19 2007, in which it stated that it viewed:

"with concern the arrest, detention and assault of the opposition leaders...." It went on to urge that the Government of Zimbabwe "...ensure that the basic rights and fundamental freedoms of all Zimbabweans are observed."

New Zealand - Foreign Minister Winston Peters called for the immediate release of Tsvangirai and his colleagues.

United Kingdom — British Prime Minister Tony Blair's comments on the events of March 11 2007 were:

"People should be able to live under the rule of law. They should be able to express their political views without harassment or intimidation or violence. And what is happening in Zimbabwe is truly tragic".

South Africa - South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad has gone on the record saying that:

South Africa is concerned about the crackdown and asked the Zimbabwean government "to ensure that the rule of law including respect for rights of all Zimbabweans and leaders of various political parties is respected."

Sweden — Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt says in his official blog:

"It's totally obvious that the brutal acts of cruelty against freedom of assembly and freedom of speech committed by the Zimbabwean government during the peaceful meeting of prayers on March 11 must be firmly condemned."

USA — The United States is considering further sanctions against the leadership of Zimbabwe following the event.

Tsvangirai's bodyguard killed

On 25 October 2007 it was reported that Nhamo Musekiwa who was Morgan Tsvangirai's bodyguard since the formation of the MDC in 1999, had died from complications resulting from injuries sustained in March 2007 during a crackdown by the government. The MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said Musekiwa had been vomiting blood since March 11 2007, when he is alleged to have been severely beaten by police along with other opposition officials and members including Tsvangirai himself. That day police halted a prayer meeting and in the ensuing confrontation one MDC activist was shot dead.

Assassination plot delays homecoming

Tsvangirai has delayed his return to Zimbabwe after his party uncovered an assassination plot against him. He was due to arrive in Harare on Saturday, 17 May, 2008, but a party spokesman said he is staying in Europe after a credible plot was discovered. On Friday, 16 May, 2008, he held a press conference at the Europa Hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

June 2008 arrest

Morgan Tsvangirai was detained by police while campaigning on Wednesday, 4 June 2008, after being stopped at a police roadblock. Tsvangirai and a group of 14 party officials were then held at a police station in Lupane. This is widely believed as a tactic to disrupt his campaigning ahead of the June 27 elections. Tsvangirai was accused by police of threatening public security by addressing a gathering without prior authorization. His detention was vigorously protested by the United States and various European governments. He was released without charge after eight hours, after which Tsvangirai commented that this was "nothing but the usual harassment which is totally unnecessary". The police also confiscated one of the security vehicles in the entourage. During this time, Mugabe was in Rome at a conference on food security.

International discussions

Meeting with John Howard

In August 2007, Tsvangirai met Prime Minister of Australia John Howard in Melbourne, and after talks told the media that countries like Australia can play a very important role in the struggle against President Robert Mugabe's regime.

Tsvangirai meets Mbeki over Zimbabwe Crisis

In September 2007 it was widely reported that Tsvangirai met Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa for crucial talks on how to speed up talks between the ruling ZANU PF and the Movement for Democratic Change party.

Tsvangirai meets Odinga over Zimbabwe Crisis

In May 2008 Tsvangirai met Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister of Kenya, who urged him to contest an election run off against Mugabe.

2008 election

Main article: Zimbabwean presidential election, 2008

A presidential election was held on March 29 2008, along with a parliamentary election on the same day. The three major candidates were Mugabe, Tsvangirai, and Simba Makoni, an independent.

According to data collected (photographed) at the close of each polling station, the MDC collated the data for electoral results. The evidence is held by them electronically. Whenever this kind of information is collected by the MDC, the government regularly raids their offices hoping to confiscate the data which is kept abroad. A short time after the election, the Government ordered weapons of war from China, to be transported through South Africa. The official results of the presidential elections' first round were finally released on May 2, 2008 and hotly contested by the MDC representatives. According to the results released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Tsvangirai won the first round, amassing 47.9% of the votes against 43.2% claimed by Mugabe. This means that no candidate has the necessary 50% plus one vote to be declared the winner after the first round and a run-off will be needed. MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa called the announced results "scandalous daylight robbery". The MDC continues to assert that it won an outright victory in the first round with 50.3% of the votes.

Tsvangirai, who was outside of Zimbabwe, primarily in South Africa, for a significant period following the first round of the election, announced on May 10 that he would participate in a presidential run-off with Mugabe. Tsvangirai said that this second round should take place within the three week period following the announcement of results that is specified by the Electoral Act. He made his participation conditional on "unfettered access of all international observers", the "reconstitution" of the Electoral Commission, and free access for the media, including the international press.

On 13 May 2008, Tsvangirai stated that he would be willing to compete in the run-off if at least SADC election observers would be present, softening his previous demand for free access to all international observers. It was subsequently announced that the second round would be held on June 27; the MDC denounced this delay.

Although Tsvangirai had been expected to return to Zimbabwe on May 17, the MDC announced on that day that his return had been delayed due to information the party had received regarding a claimed plot to assassinate him. The party subsequently claimed that military intelligence was in charge of this alleged plot, while the government dismissed the MDC's claims, saying that Tsvangirai was "playing to the international media gallery". Some observers suggested at this time that Tsvangirai's failure to return called into his question his leadership qualities and made it appear that he was afraid of Mugabe and unwilling to risk coming to harm despite the risks taken by his supporters remaining in Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai returned to Zimbabwe from South Africa on May 24.

Tsvangirai gave what he described as a state of the nation address to the newly elected MDC MPs on May 30. On this occasion, he said that Zimbabwe was in "a state of despair" and was "an unmitigated embarrassment to the African continent" due to its economic situation, and he also said that those engaging in political violence would receive no amnesty from his government. He also described the MDC as "the new ruling party" and said that the MDC's legislative program would be "based on the return of fundamental freedoms to the people of Zimbabwe". A new "people-driven constitution" would follow within 18 months, according to Tsvangirai, and a "truth and justice commission" would be established; the army would "defend our borders, not attack our people", while the prisons would "hold only criminals, not innocent people". He pledged that the party would introduce a new strategy combining "demand and supply-side measures" to bring inflation under control. Tsvangirai also promised the revival of agriculture, saying that the issue would be "completely depoliticized" and that there would be measures to "compensate or reintegrate" farmers who lost their land as part of land reform.

The government has said that a victory for Tsvangirai would be disastrous and "destabilising".

Tsvangirai was detained near Lupane on June 4, along with his security team and other top MDC officials, such as MDC Vice-President Thokozani Khupe and MDC Chairperson Lovemore Moyo. Tsvangirai was alleged to have addressed a rally near Lupane without permission.

Further reading

• Sarah Hudleston; Face of Courage:Morgan Tsvangirai; ISBN-13: 978-1770130050 (2005)
• Stephen Chan; Citizen of Africa: Conversations with Morgan Tsvangirai; ISBN 1-933146-22-2 (2005)
• George Bizos; Odyssey to Freedom; ISBN 9780958419581 (2007)

See also

• History of Zimbabwe
• Timeline of Zimbabwe history

External links

• MDC web site