Morgan Tsvangirai's interview with Colin Freeman

Morgan Tsvangirai the leader of Movement for Democratic Change, which has been in a power-sharing government with Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party since 2009. Here he tells The Sunday Telegraph's Colin Freeman about the challenges of life in a coalition government.

CF: Many of your critics say that you should have never entered the coalition, given the dire state that Zimbabwe's government was in at the time - they feared it would simply taint your own party with the perceived failures of Zanu-PF. How do you respond to that?

Morgan Tsvangirai: It was a strategic decision based on our reality and our situation.

Coalitions are not the best arrangement in the world, but they are undertaken by a politician in order to pass through a certain phase, and I think to a large extent we have delivered. In our case we had to face all the challenges of an entrenched incumbent, and find a way of unlocking his grip on state institutions.

CF: But Mugabe still controls the state security institutions. Isn't that a big problem?

MT: He still retains the overall monopoly of the state security sector, yes. It was an omission at the negotiation stages (of forming the government), it should have been one of the most important items to be discussed, but I can understand the mindset of the negotiators. At the time they were not talking about the transfer of power, they were talking about the sharing of power, and therefore anything to tamper with certain institutions might have been interpreted as an MDC attempt to take over power. Still, it was a serious omission and that is now coming to haunt us as we confront how to create the level playing field, as to how we make sure we have a non-partisan state organ ahead of elections.

CF: Do you think there can be free and fair elections?

MT: I have no doubt that given the experience of June 2008, neither the Southern African Development Community nor the African Union will countenance anything other than an exercise that is credible and legitimate. People must be forgiven for having a continuous preoccupation with Mugabe, saying he will do this or do that. Things have changed. He no longer has monopoly over the whole of the state; he has retained some power, yes, but his authority is shared, and we are in a coalition that is hammering away all the time at all his so-called tentacles of power. One thing that he won't do is make a unilateral decision on when to hold elections, because the SADC and AU insist on certain conditions being fulfilled.

CF: Can you reform the commanders of the security sector yourself?

MT: We know their history in the liberation movements, they have a culture of faith in the one-party philosophy, but we are moving to a multi-party situation, and there needs to be a shift in their professional outlook and culture to reflect that.

CF: You have had three attempts on your own life. Do you still fear assassination by your political enemies within Zimbabwe?

MT: One thing I am very certain of is that if they wanted to get rid of me, they would have taken me out already. They have the capacity and the means. I don't have any real way to protect myself if they were determined to take me out, but because of the transition and because of the role I have played, that may have soft-landed the crisis that existed two years ago.

CF: What is your relationship with Mr Mugabe like personally?

MT: I see him at the regular prime ministerial-presidential meeting every Monday at 3 o clock. We discuss government business, the challenges we are facing, diamond mining, civil service salaries, all kinds of things. Unfortunately he has his way of then having a separate meeting with his own people, so it undermines that relationship. But there is mutual respect - where we disagree we disagree, but it is not as if I go in and start shouting at him.