Like a well-trained athlete, Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) president, has been expending the right doses of energy to end Robert Mugabe's 22-year rule.
Beginning as a trade unionist in the early 1970s, Tsvangirai has emerged to be one of the strongest challengers to Mugabe's government. Tsvangirai honed his leadership skills that have proved to be effective as he stages a very strong campaign against the incumbent Mugabe, who is bankrupt of ideas.
He was secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) in the early 80s until 1999 when he was given the helm of the MDC by the Zimbabwean workers.
Mugabe calls him uneducated because of his humble background. Many political scientists argue the learned Zimbabweans have failed the nation by not challenging Mugabe. The likes of Tsvangirai have common sense and courage to do it.
"If elected he will surround himself with capable people and take their advice," said Professor Masipula Sithole of the University of Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai brings what many politicians don't demonstrate in public - charisma and magnetism. In June 2000 parliamentary elections, his infant party - the MDC - inflicted untold shame to ZANU. P.F.'s de facto one-party state in parliament. The MDC won 57 of the constituency-based seats. ZANU. P.F. clung to 62. This was a feat in Zimbabwean politics where the opposition parties had never held more than 20 seats.
Tsvangirai was not elected due to massive political violence in his Buhera rural constituency he went barnstorming around Zimbabwe under difficult conditions to secure seats that almost caused a constitutional crisis by presenting to the country a parliament of opposition members and a president from the ruling party.
Tsvangirai has no quotients of self-importance. He projects an enormous earnestness to serve Zimbabweans in these trying times of their lives. He mixes optimism with determination and has a slam-dunk argument for solving the political violence and economic mismanagement that Zimbabwe is going through.
As a son of a bricklayer, Tsvangirai learned a sense of duty and he thinks it is time he used that sense of duty for the betterment of Zimbabwe.
Eying the presidency, he attended Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he obtained a diploma from the school's executive leaders program in June 2001. The eldest of nine children, Tsvangirai was born in Gutu, Masvingo in 1952, in the southern part of Zimbabwe.
In the mid 1980s, when Mugabe's government intensified its pressure on dissension, he emerged as a "Rock of Gibraltar" leader to look to in times of trouble. He has been jailed several times because of divergent political views from Mugabe.
After months of psychological torture, Tsvangirai has remained steadfast by exuding confidence and a sense of hope to the future of Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai has captured the hearts of many Zimbabweans and many world leaders.
Tsvangirai is a gifted speaker with a knack for mobilizing the masses. In the mid 1990s, he led movements where workers did not go to work protesting against price increases and bad governance. These events catapulted him into the political limelight.
Tsvangirai believes Zimbabwe has a chance to desist from the political and economic path it is following now.
"We have to look positively beyond Mugabe. Mugabe is history," he said.
Many thinking Zimbabweans feel Tsvangirai is equipped to deliver Zimbabwe out of "Egypt" to the promised land of good governance and the rule of law. Tsvangirai is the right man to deliver Zimbabwe from its political and economic brinkmanship.
With four days left before the historic presidential election, Tsvangirai is poised to be the next president of Zimbabwe.
Write to Tafadzwa at wmudambanuki@bsu.edu
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