Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (; Shona pronunciation: [t͡sᶲa.ᵑɡi.ra.i]; 10 March 1952 – 14 February 2018) was a Zimbabwean politician who was Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2013. He was president of the Movement for Democratic Change, and later the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T), and a key figure in the opposition to then-president Robert Mugabe.
Tsvangirai was the MDC candidate in the controversial 2002 Zimbabwean presidential election, losing to Mugabe. He later contested the first round of the 2008 Zimbabwean presidential election as the MDC-T candidate, taking 47.8% of the vote according to official results, placing him ahead of Mugabe, who received 43.2%. Tsvangirai claimed to have won a majority and said that the results could have been altered in the month between the election and the reporting of official results. Tsvangirai initially planned to run in the second round against Mugabe, but withdrew shortly before it was held, arguing that the election would not be free and fair due to widespread violence and intimidation by government supporters that led to the deaths of 200 people.
Tsvangirai sustained non-life-threatening injuries in a car crash on 6 March 2009 when heading towards his rural home in Buhera. His first wife, Susan Tsvangirai, was killed in the head-on collision. As the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état occurred, Tsvangirai asked Mugabe to step down. He hoped that an all-inclusive stakeholders' meeting to chart the country's future and an internationally supervised process for the forthcoming elections would create a process that would take the country towards a legitimate regime. On 14 February 2018, Tsvangirai died at the age of 65 after reportedly suffering from colorectal cancer.
Tsvangirai was born in the Buhera area, in then Southern Rhodesia, to Karanga Shona parentage through his father Dzingirai-Chibwe Tsvangirai and mother Lydia Tsvangirai (née Zvaipa). He was the eldest of nine children, and the son of a communal farmer, mine worker, carpenter and bricklayer. He completed his primary education at St. Marks Goneso Primary School Hwedza, and was transferred by his father to Chikara Primary School Gutu, then to Silveira. He completed his secondary education at Gokomere High School. After leaving school with 8 Ordinary levels, in April 1972 he landed his first job as a trainee weaver for Elastics & Tapes textile factory in Mutare. In 1974 an old school mate from Silveira encouraged Morgan to apply for an advertised job as an apprentice for Anglo America's Bindura's Nickel Mine in Mashonaland Central. He spent ten years at the mine, rising from plant operator to plant supervisor. His rural home was Buhera, which is 220 km south east of Harare.
Tsvangirai married his first wife, Susan, in 1978. The couple had six children during their 31-year marriage, which ended with her death in the 2009 car crash. In 2011 Locardia Karimatsenga (born 1970) claimed that Tsvangirai married her in a customary ceremony in 2010. She had been seeking maintenance payments of £10,000 a month to keep up the lifestyle to which, she said in court papers, she had become accustomed. A year later, his love life made headlines again after a 23-year-old woman bore him a child and he refused to support the baby until she threatened to take him to court. He married his second wife, Elizabeth Macheka (born 1976) mother of three, on 15 September 2012. His son Richard Tsvangirai was elected MP for Norton constituency in the 2023 Zimbabwean general election.
Upon Zimbabwean independence in 1980, Tsvangirai, who was then aged 28, joined the ascendent ZANU–PF party, led by Robert Mugabe, who would later become his biggest political rival. Tsvangirai is reported to have been an ardent Mugabe supporter and to have risen "swiftly in the hierarchy", eventually becoming one of the party's senior officials. He is also known for his role in the Zimbabwean trade union movement, where he held the position of branch chairman of the Associated Mine.
Workers' Union and was later elected into the executive of the National Mine Workers' Union. In 1989 he became the Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the umbrella trade union organisation of Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai led the ZCTU away from the ruling ZANU-PF. As his power and that of the movement grew, his relationship with the government deteriorated.
Three years after coming to power, Robert Mugabe ordered the 5th Brigade, a military unit specially trained by North Korea, to commit a massacre in Matabeleland in co-operation with the Minister of Defence Enos Nkala, led by Air Marshal Perrance Shiri because of suspicion of an alleged counter-revolution being planned by Joshua Nkomo. Tsvangirai would later use Gukurahundi against ZANU and to drum up support in Matabeleland. 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
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), established in 1997, was chaired by a Moderator, and its day-to-day executive was run by a Task Force. Tsvangirai chaired the Task Force, as founding convener Tawanda Mutasah (succeeded by Bishop Nemapare) served as Moderator. Serving with Tsvangirai in the Task Force were activists that included Lovemore Madhuku, Welshman Ncube, Everjoice Win, Brian Kagoro, Tendai Biti and Priscilla Misihairabwi. The NCA gathered individual Zimbabwean citizens and civic organisations including labour movements, student and youth groups, women's groups, churches, business groups and human rights organisations. These individuals and groups formed the NCA to campaign for constitutional reform after realising that the political, social and economic problems affecting Zimbabwe were mainly a result of the defective Lancaster House constitution and could only be resolved through a new and democratic constitution. Tsvangirai stepped down after being elected president of the MDC.
In 2001 Tsvangirai was awarded the 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.
Movement for Democratic Change
In 1999 Tsvangirai co-founded and organised the Movement for Democratic Change with Gibson Sibanda, Welshman Ncube, Fletcher Dulini Ncube and Isaac Matongo, an opposition party opposed to President Robert Mugabe and the ZANU-PF ruling party. He helped to defeat the February 2000 constitutional referendum, successfully campaigning against it along with the National Constitutional Assembly.
Tsvangirai lost the March 2002 presidential election to Mugabe. The election was flawed due to rigged voting, the use of violence, media bias, and manipulation of the voters' 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. The state's star witness was Ari-Ben Manashe. 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 and Walter Sisulu in the famous South African Rivonia Trial in 1964, headed Morgan Tsvangirai's defence team.