Many Zimbabweans on Tuesday, climbed tree tops and onto bus carriers in a downpour to give opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai an emotional burial next to his first wife in his rural home, Buhera.
Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader who rose to prominence by posing the biggest opposition, many said faced the most daring challenge to ex-president Robert Mugabe.
He died of cancer on February 14 aged 65 and buried next to his first wife Susan, who died in a car crash in 2009.
Tsvangirai, in his home village of Buhera, 250 km South-East of the capital, Harare, was known by his clan name as Save.
The name originated from a once mighty river that flows from Southern Zimbabwe to Mozambique.
Thousands of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters jammed the usually sleepy village with some mourners walking long distances to bid farewell to Tsvangirai.
He was Prime Minister in a 2009 to 2013 unity government with Mugabe.
Political foes and allies alike described Tsvangirai as a brave politician who challenged the status quo when few could dare stand up to Mugabe.
Mugabe was swept aside November, following a de facto military coup.
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga said he was a personal friend to Tsvangirai, adding that their political experiences were similar.
Read also: Negligence: Court dissolves 15-year-old marriage
He said just like him in 2007, Tsvangirai was cheated of victory in presidential elections a year later.
“I have come to mourn a dear brother and a friend, a great African and Zimbabwean.
“Zimbabwe and Africa have lost a torchbearer of the second liberation of Africa,’’ Odinga said.
Oppah Muchinguri, a cabinet minister and national chairperson of the ruling ZANU-PF said she had known Tsvangirai since his days as a union leader and worked with him during the “difficult times” of the unity government.
“Tsvangirai’s work speaks for itself; he valued others before he thought of himself. He was a unifier for the children of Zimbabwe,” Muchinguri, who was initially booed by the MDC crowd, said.
However, before his body was lowered into the grave, there were visible signs of the deep divisions that will confront a post-Tsvangirai MDC, less than six months before presidential, parliamentary and council elections.
Party youths mobbed and threatened to beat up MDC Vice-President Thokozani Khupe and Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora as they arrived for the burial.
However, the quick intervention by the party’s acting president, Nelson Chamisa, calmed the situation.
The election of 40-year-old Chamisa as Acting President, recently, is being challenged by a faction of the party led by Khupe, Mwonzora and another Vice-President Elias Mudzuri.
While MDC is consumed by internal squabbles, under new Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, political analysts say ZANU-PF looks relatively stronger and more cohesive with the help of the military.
Report says Army generals now occupy strategic posts in government and ZANU-PF, which has access to state financial resources, is already campaigning in rural Zimbabwe where the majority of voters reside. (Reuters/NAN)
