Zimbabwe has received the news that Morgan Tsvangirai, the icon of the opposition’s fight against the Zanu-PF government, has died. As the MDC-T leader is remembered, here are 5 things some may not know about him:
1. Tsvangirai was the eldest in a family of nine.
2. He left school at the age of 16 to become a textile weaver to support his family.
3. Tsvangirai had earlier on joined active politics in the 1987 and 1989 after leading a series of strikes against the ZANU-PFgovernment’s tax increases when he was the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions Secretary-General.
4. He became the first man to defeat former Zim president Robert Mugabe in an election since 1980 after winning the 2008 Presidential election. He however didn’t become president as Zanu-PF unleashed a wave of political violence which resulted in the death of hundreds of MDC members.
5. Tsvangirai was once arrested and detained by the Zimbabwe Republic Police in 1989 on allegations of spying to the South African apartheid government.