Morgan Tsvangirai burial in PICTURES
Thousands of MDC supporters thronged Buhera to bid a final farewell to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (65) who was laid to rest next to his first wife Susan Tsvangirai.
Those in attendance included Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, music superstar Oliver Mtukudzi, former Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, former Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, Zanu PF national chairperson Oppah Muchinguri and many others.
Odinga, attending the event, condemned political oppression in Africa as he addressed supporters of Tsvangirai whose electoral ambitions, like Odinga’s, were thwarted at controversial polls. “Africa is littered with elections which are rigged,” Odinga told the crowds.
Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the first round of presidential polls in 2008 but narrowly fell short of the total required to win outright, according to the official vote count. Tsvangirai pulled out of an election run-off following violence which, he said, claimed the lives of at least 200 of his supporters.
Odinga insists he was the rightful winner of general elections in Kenya in August which extended President Uhuru Kenyatta’s rule. “We need to have clear and proper transparent elections in Africa. Rigged elections will not help Africa,” Odinga told mourners.
“Morgan’s election victory was stolen a year after mine was stolen in Kenya,” Odinga said, referring to the 2007 elections which he alleges were rigged to ensure Kenyatta’s victory.
We are celebrating a hero,” said the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party’s acting president Nelson Chamisa.
Mutambara who worked with Tsvangirai said “We are here to mourn the president of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai — a great Zimbabwean, a great African. He was arrested. He was beaten. The people of ZANU-PF are also here, they are the people who killed Morgan Tsvangirai.”
