London Observer: Year of decision for Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai

[Jack Rabbit]

From the London Observer (Sunday supplement of the Guardian Unlimited)
Dated Sunday December 28

Year of decision for the man cradling Zimbabwe's hopes
Ahead of a crucial 12 months, the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is upbeat about replacing Mugabe, as he tells our correspondent in Harare
By Rory Carroll

Directions to the rendezvous will be given at the last minute, says the voice at the other end of the line, lest the secret police are listening.
In these days of fuel shortages it is just a 15-minute drive from central Harare to the suburb where five polite young men, acting as sentinels, open the gates leading to a pink house.
Standing at the door of his study, a one-room cottage in the garden, is Morgan Tsvangirai, would-be President of Zimbabwe and nemesis of Robert Mugabe. He looks like his newspaper photographs: a bit crumpled, smiling and frowning at the same time . . . .
The coming year, most analysts agree, is make-or-break. If Tsvangirai gets it right, Zimbabwe will have a 'soft landing' from 23 years of Mugabe rule.
If he gets it wrong, the country may go the way of Congo and pay in chaos and bloodshed, or choke in the tightened grip of the ruling Zanu-PF party. Tsvangirai knows it is his big test.

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