Morgan Tsvangirai was “on the verge of joining Zanu PF” before his death: Chebundo*

A former senior MDC official who defected to Zanu PF has made sensational claims that the late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had been considering joining the ruling party led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa shortly before his death.

The latest assertions were made on Tuesday by former MDC legislator Blessing Chebundo, who joined Zanu PF in 2021.

He said this during the presentation of new Zanu-PF members, including Collen Tsvangirai, brother to the late opposition leader, who was paraded and forced to chant the controversial 2030 slogan. Several ex-opposition figures continue to cross the political divide.

Chebundo told supporters that Tsvangirai had allegedly expressed support for Mnangagwa’s policy direction, claiming the late MDC founder believed some of the grievances that led to the formation of the party in 1999 were being addressed.

“When Tsvangirai was dying, let me tell you what you didn’t know, he said ‘men and women of MDC. We formed MDC on the basis of the grievances against the policies that were not favourable to workers.

“But Mnangagwa has brought policies that are answering what we were crying for in 1999. So there is no longer any need to keep sabotaging. Let’s unite with him and move forward’. This is what he said,” Chebundo stated.

Earlier this week, longtime Tsvangirai aide Gandhi Mudzingwa also defected.

Mudzingwa’s defection to Zanu PF shocked many within the opposition because he was one of the activists who suffered directly at the hands of state security agencies during periods of political repression.

Having been abducted, detained and allegedly tortured in 2008, Mudzingwa came to embody the experiences of many MDC members who endured persecution for opposing Zanu PF.

While Zanu PF defectors insist Tsvangirai had been preparing to work with Mnangagwa’s government before his passing in February 2018, the claims have not been independently verified and are likely to be disputed by many who may view them as attempts to rewrite the late leader’s legacy.

Writing in his column, political commentator Reason Wafawarova noted that Zimbabwe was being subjected to the “complete theatre” of “opposition defectors” — which was really “a show-and-tell parade meant to convince Zimbabweans that the opposition is collapsing and Zanu PF is regenerating.”

“But what we are seeing is not regeneration. It is recruitment by cheque book. Everyone has a price,” Wafawarova wrote. *_-Nehanda Radio_*