Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Morgan Tsvangirai Dead At 65

Zimbabwean opposition leader and one of the founding members of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai has died. He was 65.

This recent report like the previous two, was announced by South African media on Wednesday evening where he had been undergoing treatment for an ailment.

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Morgan Tsvangirai, a known serial philanderer and womanizer, had been battling an unknown ailment for years.  As a result of growing public speculation to the nature of his illness, it was then claimed that he was suffering from colon cancer.

Tsvangirai’s political stock and prominence grew in the late ‘90s as a Trade Unionist responsible for contributing to the country’s economic demise after calling for successive strikes and mass stay-aways.  These endless actions eventually crippled industries and businesses, some of which never recovered to this day.

In 2000, he was propelled into the national political limelight at the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) where he became the most visible face and prominent voice of the opposition against the then prevailing status quo of the Mugabe-led ZANU (PF) government.

Tsvangirai would later emerge as the most influential opposition leader in Zimbabwean politics in the last three decades.  That prominence saw him emerge as a governing partner in a power-sharing agreement with his political nemesis, President Robert Mugabe from 2008 to 2013, a political arrangement brokered by SADC after the disputed General Elections of 2008.

However, his lack of political acumen coupled with his overall political deficit in articulating a clear platform for his party, the once prominent opposition leader saw his political stock diminish.

After his party’s resounding electoral loss in 2013, Morgan Tsvangirai would soon become a political recluse after retreating from the political scene. Furthermore, with his diminished political status, growing financial troubles and health issues, Tsvangirai quickly became politically irrelevant with occasional appearances in the news to make remarks whenever political opportunism availed itself.

His MDC party, just like his diminished political fortunes, had disintegrated into multiple warring factions and a former shadow of itself. Trying to figure out how many MDCs currently exist would be a waste of time.

Despite his obvious political novice and ideological bankruptcy status, Morgan Tsvangirai had a gift: he was a political opportunist with an ability to sniff political opportunism from a distance just like a mouse can whiff cheese from a deep dark hole.  In a way, his short-lived political career can thus be summed up as one huge political opportunity which quickly ran out of opportunities to exploit.

Tsvangirai’s Legacy: How He Will He Be Remembered

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Morgan Tsvangirai, inspire of all his shortcomings, was undoubtedly a political force in the last three decades of Zimbabwean politics. He was once a formidable opposition force who will be remembered as one of Zimbabwe’s opposition figures who gave the willy, former President Robert Mugabe a run for his money.

In fact, Tsvangirai will be credited for leading one of the country’s most successful opposition that had broad appeal across provinces, a party, unfortunately like everything else in his short political life, is now struggling to find and redefine itself.

However, Morgan Tsvangirai’s sad ending is also a symbolic mirror image of the diminished overall status of him as a once prominent public figure in the past two decades – a man reduced to being pitted and drawing sympathies.

Sanctions Under ZIDERA

One huge blotch in Morgan Tsvangirai’s long journey to political life with no known accomplishments would be his trip to the U.S. Congress to request for an imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe and her people.

The outcome of that trip was the now infamous ZIDERA (Zimbabwe Democracy and Recovery Act) of 2001 which the MDC has but tried unsuccessfully to deny and distance itself from.

Unfortunately, ZIDERA  which remains in place and very active has become political tool and hammer by which a deeply partisan U.S. Congress will continue using to bludgeon small Zimbabwe with and hold it against the country whenever its own domestic politics compels it so.

Under Tsvangirai’s leadership, the MDC in their desperation for power handed the U.S. Congress a very powerful foreign policy tool that will be near impossible to repeal.  ZIDERA (2001) is owned by MDC and like everything else, will forever be part of Morgan Tsvangirai’s dismal political legacy, a foreign policy gift for the U.S. which even he could not convince them to repeal.

The outcome the MDC-backed ZIDERA has been nothing but terrible for the small southern African country.  It led to the mass exodus of Zimbabwe’s businesses and industries including its prominent figures, professionals and academics – a brain drain of the country’s finest. With manufacturing industries decimated, infrastructure, financial and economy all impacted, MDC’s requested sanction left Zimbabwe in a historic economic quagmire and an almost failed state.

With such a legacy, it is not surprising that it became a political albatross on his short political career and will therefore overshadow whatever little, if any, accomplishments he may have achieved. Furthermore, his MDC with all its current and past leadership will also be forever be associated with the destruction of the country’s once vibrant economy and because of that, it will be a challenge for that party to win elections particularly with ZIDERA still an an economic albatross on the country’s small economy.

Political Immaturity and Recklessness

For all his political achievements and global recognition as a political power in Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai would soon squander his party’s political fortunes with all his political immaturity and recklessness of his personal life.

His status as a serial philanderer and womanizer decimated whatever ounce of decency, respect and credibility he once enjoyed, with his impregnation of young girls making him a political liability and a disgrace to the entire nation.

Political Confusion

Although Tsvangirai was a great opposition leader, the jury, however, is still out on his ability or lack thereof to understand simple differences between governing and opposition.

Morgan Tsvangirai’s political confusion would manifest itself during his term as Prime Minister in the power-sharing government with ZANU (PF) and President Mugabe from 2008-2013 where he remained in perpetual opposition until his party was ousted.  This earned him political mockery and ridicule, something which will remain part his interesting legacy in the annals of history.

Corruption

Another stain on Tsvangirai’s leadership and tenure as the Prime Minister was his party’s naivety and inability to govern.  Corruption became the hallmark of the MDC when members of his own party succumbed to the trappings of power, making them no different from the party they were critical of.

His party which controlled almost all the major cities and municipalities in the country became a target of local residents over abuse of public funds and corruption charges which nearly crippled service provision and functions of urban councils and municipalities.

Finally, Morgan Tsvangirai will be remembered as a flawed politician, a political opportunist and desperado who would latch onto any situation to gain political mileage and relevance.  He will also be remembered as a man who presided over his own party’s demise – from its greatness to a diminished status that lost relevance under his leadership.

In addition to his family and adult children, Morgan Tsvangirai leaves behind small children of young women he abused and whose lives and reputations he has tainted.

 

 

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