2012•07•12 Tokyo
EVENT: Lecture by Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on democratization in Africa
DATE: Friday, 20 July 2012, 11:00 AM – 12.30 PM
VENUE: United Nations University Headquarters, Tokyo
ORGANIZERS: United Nations University (UNU) and the Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe
Media representatives are cordially invited to attend; please send e-mail to media@unu.edu.
About the speaker
Prime Minister Tsvangirai was born the son of a bricklayer, the eldest of nine children. After leaving school early to support his family, he started working in Zimbabwe mines where he soon became an active member of trade unions. He played an ever-increasing role before being elected in 1988 as Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), an umbrella organization for the Country’s trade unions. In 1999, the ZCTU convened a National Working People’s Convention, which in one of its post-convention meeting saw the birth of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Morgan Tsvangirai ascended to leadership within the MDC. He stood as the MDC’s candidate in the presidential elections in 2002 and 2008. The elections in 2008 were severely contested; the resulting tense political situation triggered the intervention of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and then-president of South Africa Thabo Mbeki, which succeeded in facilitating a political agreement that led to the formation of a ”Government of Unity” with the three main parties represented. On 15 September 2008, several SADC leaders witnessed the signing in Harare of the power-sharing agreement known as the “Global Political Agreement”, which led to the formation of Zimbabwe’s current transitional government.