Government will fulfil financial and material promises made to the late former Prime Minister and opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Sunday.
Addressing mourners at Tsvangirai’s home where he had gone to pay his condolences, President Mnangagwa said he would see to it that pledges he made to the late premier are fulfilled.
“I visited Tsvangirai last month and made some promises to him. I will not renege on those promises. My Government will also settle his hospital bill as promised.
“When funeral processes are done, I will let the family know what I had promised him. I will fulfil all the pledges I made to him,” said the President.
Government was also paying for Tsvangirai’s hospital and medication bills up to the time of his death.
In January, President Mnangagwa visited the late Tsvangirai at his residence to check on him since he had been unwell for some time.
President Mnangagwa said Tsvangirai’s body would be flown to his rural home in Buhera for burial on Tuesday.
“We are all Zimbabweans. We might disagree on how to get where we need to be, but no political party wants the worst for the country,” said President Mnangagwa.
Tsvangirai succumbed to cancer of the colon last week at a South African hospital.
His body was flown home on Saturday where it laid in state at a military camp, Commando Barracks, same place where national heroes are kept.
Tsvangirai had been leader of the biggest opposition party in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change since its formation in 1999.
He battled it out with former President Robert Mugabe in three election cycles in his bid to become the President of Zimbabwe.
He failed to dislodge the veteran leader and his Zanu PF party, but came close in 2008, after winning the first round of the Presidential election, but withdrew from the second round citing violence against his supporters. The dispute resulted in the Southern African Development Community intervening and negotiating a settlement which led to formation of a coalition government in which Tsvangirai he made Prime Minister.