Statecraft & Independence
Peerless
Morgan Tsvangirai
1952 – 2018
Built the opposition that ended Robert Mugabe's monopoly, and paid for it
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the Zimbabwe Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A nickel miner who became Zimbabwe's trade union leader and then the first politician to seriously threaten Mugabe. He was beaten, charged with treason three times, won the first round of the 2008 election, and served as prime minister in the unity government that followed.
Morgan Richard Tsvangirai worked ten years in a nickel mine at Bindura and rose through the union there to become secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
In 1999 he founded the Movement for Democratic Change, and within months had led the campaign that defeated Mugabe's constitutional referendum — the first time the government had lost a national vote. He stood for president in 2002, 2008 and 2013. In March 2008 he won the first round; the official count was delayed for five weeks and put him just under the threshold, and he withdrew from the run-off after state-backed violence killed around two hundred of his supporters and displaced tens of thousands. The regional mediation that followed made him prime minister in a unity government from 2009 to 2013, where he and his finance minister stabilised a currency that had reached hyperinflation and reopened the schools and hospitals.
He was assaulted in police custody in 2007 in photographs that went around the world, charged with treason three times and acquitted each time, and survived an attempt on his life. He died of cancer in 2018, months after the army removed Mugabe.
In 1999 he founded the Movement for Democratic Change, and within months had led the campaign that defeated Mugabe's constitutional referendum — the first time the government had lost a national vote. He stood for president in 2002, 2008 and 2013. In March 2008 he won the first round; the official count was delayed for five weeks and put him just under the threshold, and he withdrew from the run-off after state-backed violence killed around two hundred of his supporters and displaced tens of thousands. The regional mediation that followed made him prime minister in a unity government from 2009 to 2013, where he and his finance minister stabilised a currency that had reached hyperinflation and reopened the schools and hospitals.
He was assaulted in police custody in 2007 in photographs that went around the world, charged with treason three times and acquitted each time, and survived an attempt on his life. He died of cancer in 2018, months after the army removed Mugabe.
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