Morgan Tsvangirai: A great beacon of light that has gone – Chakwera

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has died after a battle with cancer, has been described by Malawi’s leader of opposition Lazarus Chakwera as a great beacon of light that has gone.

In a message on Facebook, Chakwera who is Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president said Tsvangirai made contributions to Africa’s second struggle for independence from corrupt governments that hijacked most of its nations following independence from foreign powers.

Chakwera further said in Africa it’s always not an easy task to stand in opposition to the government but Tsvangirai was different as he was standing strong.

“For a whole generation of Africans, it shall forever be impossible to whisper the word “opposition” in the Zimbabwean context without in the same breath invoking Tsvangirai as the name that became synonymous with it.

“It was a cause for which he not only fought, but for which he suffered greatly, enduring beatings, imprisonment, multiple assassination attempts, and multiple trumped up allegations of treason. But in the wake of every adversity designed to deter him, Tsvangirai was a man who would get up and stand up for your rights,” said Chakwera.

According to the Malawi leader of opposition, it would be fitting for Tsvangirai if his name comes to mean any person who suffers greatly in their courageous quest for justice and opposition to corruption and oppression.

He also noted that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader inspired a new generation of freedom fighters in Africa and that Zimbabwe’s future is still bright because Tsvangirai shined his light on it.

The 65 year old MDC party leader died on Wednesday in South Africa after a long battle with colon cancer.

Tsvangirai suffered serious physical abuse at the hands of security forces, including serious head injuries in police custody in 2007 during the reign of Robert Mugabe, but still formed an uneasy working relationship with Mugabe in 2009.