Susan's death spelt doom for Morgan Tsvangirai

THE leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), Morgan Tsvangirai's personal compass lost its true north following the death of his wife in 2009.  Although it has taken a while to confirm this, the demise of his wife, Susan, in a road accident five years ago marked the beginning of a downturn in his life. By his own admission, in the write-up Personal Reflections which he distributed last week, Tsvangirai said, "After my wife died in an accident back in 2009, life has not been easy going - that fateful day will not leave me."

Earlier that year in February, Tsvangirai took oath as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, joining government at a time when the country had been ravaged by an unprecedented economic quagmire. Beaten by poverty and scarcity almost to a pulp, many Zimbabweans laid their hopes on Tsvangirai, the former trade unionist, who with his mass appeal had lured a large following, the first of its kind to challenge and threaten the former revolutionary party since it came into power at Independence in 1980.

Many had rooted for Tsvangirai to join government and had held their breaths during the protracted talks about forming a government of national unity (GNU). As the talks stretched for weeks upon weeks at some points it would become doubtful whether the parties would find common ground. The direction of the talks, which took a large chunk of the last half of 2008, hinged on whether or not Tsvangirai would play ball.

At the time, hope for the country to stabilise both economically and politically did not exist outside of Tsvangirai, who in the eyes of at least 49 percent of the voting public, had acquired messianic status. Only a few months earlier, in June 2008 following a bloody election campaign of terror and violence, he had displayed heroic qualities by opting out of the presidential race, leaving President Robert Mugabe to contest alone, protesting the killing of innocent supporters. This stroke of heroism stood him head and shoulders above President Mugabe, who at the time was mired in bloody accusations, shunned by the international community, and demonised by many within and without the country's borders. For sure Tsvangirai's star was on both a meteoric rise and a blinding glitter.

Different opposition parties before him - Edgar Tekere's Zimbabwe Unity Movement, Margaret Dongo's Zimbabwe Union of Democrats, among others - had dismally failed to achieve the impact which the former trade unionist was taking in his stride. Coming from humble beginnings as a one-time tea boy, the democratic movement leader's strength lay on his courage and ability to draw the grassroots to a crusade towards change. Donors were tripping over themselves to prop him up financially and feather his personal and party nest eggs.

By any standard, he was a man on a resounding mission and he sure was fast arriving at his "anointed" destination as the political messiah for the masses who had been impoverished and battered by some unfortunate economic policies and intolerant political stances for years. With his wife by his side, he cut a sound and convincing figure for a conservative society such as Zimbabwe where marital stability is a value.
Believed to have a calming effect and to be a supportive cornerstone to her husband and with motherly welcoming and accommodating qualities to members of the democratic movement and their supporters, Susan was undoubtedly an asset.

"One of the things that used to at least cover it up (any shortcomings of Tsvangirai) was his wife (Susan), because some people would have access to his wife and she had a calming influence on him," MDC-T's former deputy treasurer general and a once-upon-a-time close lieutenant to the party president, Elton Mangoma, told the Financial Gazette. Then, as fate would have it, before the ink on the global political agreement documents had dried, hardly weeks after her husband had set foot in the highest echelons of the country's governance, Susan tragically died.

It would not be long after the death of his sweetheart, the mother of five of his children, the love of most of his adult life, that cracks would start to show in the veneer that had couched his charmed life. Of note, as the earliest blemishes on his brand, were the numerous affairs which painted a picture of an unbridled manhood. While some people have intimated that the appetite for many women had always been with Tsvangirai even from his days as a trade union leader, claiming that his wife had been adept at covering up her husband's amorous propensities and managing the family image and brand, now there would be no curtain to keep out of sight the unsightly.

One after another, indiscreet affairs tumbled out of the woodwork into full view, blemishing, bit by bit, the glossy messianic veneer. Then came the unfortunate decisions and at times utterances which became the foundation for criticism by his detractors.  These, such as failure to use to maximum benefit of his supporters his executive powers in government; failure to effectively balance out power in the GNU; his ill-advised flashy use of resources - traipsing the seas in romantic escapades; among others, created fodder for his critics, many of whom are now emerging from his close quarters. Many would have been content to continue facing the other way had he won the 2013 elections.
But the straw that broke the camel's back was when he dismally lost in the polls.

Then all his mistakes and ill-advised moves were brought to bear.  And before he knew what hit him, calls for him to step down started and in no time it was a hymn that many sang from. His own reaction to the calls for stepping down, which some have called intolerant, eventually saw a split in the party between those who were clamouring for leadership change and others who were keen to keep Tsvangirai on. Although with his trademark unbending courage he has continued to stave off calls and resistance against him, and his end is not definite as yet, it stands true that his star has waned.

No longer does it dazzle. Nor glitter. Nor shimmer. At least not the way it did the last days of his wife's life where together they had cut a formidable picture of a couplehood cemented by resilience, support, shared experiences - the good the bad and the ugly - as well as companionship and long time partnership. Analysts this week told the Financial Gazette that the role a wife pays in a leader's life could not be underestimated, and that in Tsvangirai's case Susan's death had left him exposed.

"It is always said that for every successful man there is a woman behind him. To me this is true. The death of Tsvangirai's wife made it necessary for those who were plotting his demise behind his back to make a killing on his love life," political analyst, Mukachana Hanyani, said.

"Remember (it had been rumoured though without proof) that before Susan's death, Tsvangirai had another woman he had two children with but that story was kept under the carpet until after his wife was no more. Susan's demise also exposed Tsvangirai's love for women resulting in him being publicly under the spotlight to everyone. His enemies used this to politically assassinate him. So (in that regard) Susan's death contributed a lot to Tsvangirai's demise on his political and personal life," Hanyani said.

"In short, l do believe that a woman stands as the best (person) in shaping any political leader in his dealings for a safe and political settlement of his life and that of his supporters," Hanyani added.

Another political analyst, Otto Saki, concurred. "A spouse, for a political and national leader, is critical as he or she might bring stability, support and direction; most purpose driven men and women in politics tend to have some form of spousal support coupled by firm rootedness in their faith and or traditions. Many of the politicians that have lost their loved ones from one misfortune or another have remarried and settled, as our society values the traditional definition of a family," Saki said.

According to Saki, moments of loss, especially of a lifetime partner, spouse for any person tend to be moments that expose or make one vulnerable either to their own (misgivings) and individualism which were countered by the departed partner/spouse. "These are times when solid support and counsel is needed. It could be that his (Tsvangirai's) political compass was affected during this period," Saki said. He, however, found no merit in the continued bombarding of the MDC-T leader.

"But for those formerly and currently within his party to continue to apportion blame on Tsvangirai alone is nauseating, if not empty. They should shoulder the burden of their own weaknesses and individualism and proffer concrete alternatives proving that their erstwhile party president failed.

"There are several other issues within that party that contributed to their collective current political disillusionment, including inability to remain located in people's issues, the ‘trappings' of the inclusive government, and failure to articulate, package and present their achievements within the inclusive government, a sense of arrival and excitement of holding some form of government authority, refusal to heed warning signals including repeated scientific findings showing decline in their party's support, but also Zanu-PF's preparedness and lessons that violence is unsustainable as a tool for winning elections and gaining legitimacy. There is need for collective regaining of the political compass by those in opposition political parties," Saki said.

Even though Tsvangirai has remarried, sources from his rural home last week told the Financial Gazette that most people in his village in Buhera still pined for the late wife. "Everyone liked the late Mai Tsvangirai. They would come to her with their problems and whenever people had concerns with Tsvangirai she would mediate and offer solutions," said a source, adding, "It seems people do not like this new wife (Elizabeth Macheka). They have never really identified with her and so they do not feel as if she is with them."

Although many have pointed to the loss of his wife as a cause of loss of political and personal gravitas as well as firm direction in Tsvangirai, others have gone on to say that the loss of his comrade Gibson Sibanda, former trade union president, alongside whom he co-founded the party, also took away immensely from the embattled leader's solidity. "He (Tsvangirai) was a brilliant leader for the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, working together with his ‘Siamese twin' Gibson Sibanda. Each strengthened the other and they both, as well as the trade union movement, benefitted from this synergy.

"It was assumed that this twin arrangement would continue in the new political party, but a political party is a different animal altogether from a trade union movement," said Trudy Stevenson, Zimbabwe's ambassador to Senegal and the Gambia, who was part of the founding of the democratic movement. Other forces and personalities came onto the scene. The partnership was strained and finally broken, to the great chagrin of both (though Tsvangirai only admitted it at Sibanda's funeral) and to the detriment of both the party and the people. Without Sibanda, Tsvangirai floundered under the competing cross-currents within the party, all the more so when he lost Susan (his wife). The sad events of the last few years bear witness," Stevenson said.