On this day in 1952, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai was born in Buhera, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Tsvangirai was a Zimbabwean politician who the Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) in 1999 and served as the country’s Prime Minister from 2009 to 2013. He died in 2018 at the age of 65.
On this day in 1975, a United Kingdom based Zimbabwean lecturer Alex Tawanda Magaisa was born. Magaisa is an Academic and Lecturer of law at the Kent Law School of the University of Kent. He served as Advisor of the then Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai from 2012-2013. Magaisa had been working as a core member of a team expect tasked to give advise patterning the drafting of the new constitution of Zimbabwe. To add, he is well known for his legal, political and social commentary work on issues affecting Zimbabwe and other developing nations through his well known blog, ‘The Big Saturday Read’. In doing this, his work is sometimes featured by the Zimbabwean news such as the Herald and the Standard.
On this day in 2002, presidential elections in Zimbabwe organized for three days began. The elections were contested by five political parties with ZANU-PF led by Robert Mugabe and MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai as the major parties.
On this day in 2002, presidential elections organized for three days in Zimbabwe came to an end. Robert Mugabe won 56% of the votes followed by Tsvangirai with 42% votes.
On this day in 2007, MDC party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other officials including his driver Nhamo Musekiwa were arrested on their way to a prayer rally organized by churches in Highfield Harare. A number of MDC supporters were also arrested and activist Gift Tandare was gunned down in a protest.
On this day in 2008, ZEC announced poll results after a month’s delay. Results stated that, the late former President of MDC Morgan Tsvangirai had won 47.9% whereas the late former President of Zimbabwe Robert Gabriel Mugabe with 43.2%. Both political parties failed to reach 50 plus votes which resulted in the setting up for new dates to vote again.
On this day in 2008, the late Robert Gabriel Mugabe then President of Zimbabwe agreed to hand over day to day control of the government and much of his power in a historical deal with his opponent the late Morgan Tsvangirai. The deal was very crucial to end the famous 2008 political crisis that Zimbabwe was in following the disputed 2008 general elections.
On this day in 2009, the Movement for Democratic Change party leader Morgan Richard Tsvangirai was sworn in as the country’s prime minister by president Robert Mugabe. Mugabe and Tsvangirai set their differences aside and signed a power sharing deal (Government of National Unity-GNU) the previous year.Two deputy prime ministers Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara were also inaugurated.
On this day in 2009, Morgan Tsvangirai together with his wife Susan Tsvangirai were involved in an accident. The accident took place on the Harare-Masvingo highway as they were on their way to Buhera. Susan died on the accident scene whereas Morgan survived with injuries.
Zimbabwe’s longtime opposition party leader and former Prime Minister Richard Morgan Tsvangirai died on this day in 2018. Tsvangirai succumbed to colon cancer in Johannesburg. Tsvangirai was the president of the MDC-T party at the time of his death, which he co-founded as Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999.
On this day in 2018, the Movement for Democratic Change party national council assigned the post of president to Nelson Chamisa for a period of 12 months following the death of Morgan Tsvangirai who was the founder and party president.
On this day in 2019,.the late Zimbabwean music legend, Oliver Mtukudzi aka Tuku died at the age of 66 after succumbing to cancer. Mtukudzi’s songs often included lyrics that were centred on societal concerns, including HIV/AIDS, alcohol abuse, as well as encouraging self-respect by making the use of Shona aphorisms. Later in his career, Mtukudzi became deeply involved in charity work and at one time he served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. To quote, ‘My role as a musician is to raise awareness and motivate wider responses to the social and economic problems that continue to deprive children of a good development’. One of his high profile performances was when he perfomed at the burial of the former Prime Minister veteran, Morgan Tsvangirai (late).