Mugabe’s biggest foe laid to rest in his home village

Bloomberg

Thousands of mourners, many clad in red, laid Morgan Tsvangirai to rest in his home village on Tuesday after the man who led Zimbabwe’s main opposition party for almost two decades and came close to toppling President Robert Mugabe died of colon cancer.
Buses and trucks formed a long line on the highway near the village of Humanikwa, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) south of the capital, Harare, while diplomats trudged through muddy fields and rain to get to the funeral and mourners shouted and wept.
While Mugabe, who was ousted by his own party in November, sent a message of condolence and current leader Emmerson Mnangagwa has paid tribute to Tsvangirai, the event was not without rancor. An official from Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change told South African radio station Power FM that the condolences were “crocodile tears.”
During the struggle Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change waged against Mugabe and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, the party leader was beaten by police and hospitalized with a fractured skull. He pulled out of a 2008 presidential runoff after 200 opposition supporters were killed in political violence.
Tsvangirai leaves behind a divided party. Times Live, a South African news website, reported that a rival to new MDC leader Nelson Chamisa was chased away from the funeral along with the party secretary-general by brick-wielding youths. Still, Chamisa promised to unify the movement.
“You’ve died,” Chamisa said as he addressed the crowd. The “idea of uniting the party will be fulfilled.” Zimbabwe is scheduled to hold an election in the first half of this year.
Raila Odinga, who says he was cheated out of the Kenyan presidency in an election last year that he says was rigged, described Tsvangirai as a patriot who led Africa’s second liberation, a reference to political leaders who attempt to topple the parties that won independence across a swathe of southern Africa from Angola to Zimbabwe and South Africa. Tsvangirai, who died at 65, was the father of eight children. His first wife, Susan, died in a car crash in 2009. He married his second wife, Elizabeth, in 2012.