Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans turned up to bid farewell to Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday.
Zimbabweans bid Tsvangirai farewell
But as the remains of country’s former main opposition leader were laid to rest the burden of responsibility weighed heavier on the shoulders of the interim MDC party president.
“The president was always anchored in the people, with the people, for the people, from the people,” Chamisa told a rally of opposition supporters before Tsvangirai’s body left the capital for his rural home in Buhera.
Chamisa asserted that the causes for which their late leader was fighting would not pass with him.
“We’re going to bury his body, but we’re not going to bury his ideas. We will keep his ideas alive – the idea of a new Zimbabwe, the idea of a new democratic framework, the idea of a people whose labour rights are respected, the very idea of democracy,” he said.
Morgan Tsvangirai died last Wednesday in South Africa after a two-year battle with colon cancer.
His party, divided around his succession, hopes to unite and defeat the ruling ZANU PF under President Emmerson Mngagwa in this year’s elections.