Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai The Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T) is a political party and currently the main opposition party in the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe ahead of the 2018 elections. After the split of the original Movement for Democratic Change in 2005, the MDC–T remains the major opposition faction. The smaller faction is the Movement for Democratic Change – Ncube, or MDC–N, led by Welshman Ncube. The Movement for Democratic Change was founded in 1999 as an opposition party to the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party led by President Robert
Robert Mugabe He reluctantly took part in the peace negotiations brokered by the United Kingdom that resulted in the Lancaster House Agreement. The agreement dismantled the short-lived Zimbabwe Rhodesia and resulted in the 1980 general election, at which Mugabe led ZANU-PF to victory. Mugabe's administration expanded healthcare and education and—despite his Marxist rhetoric and professed desire for a socialist society—adhered largely to mainstream, conservative economic policies. His calls for racial reconciliation failed to stem growing white flight. Relations with Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) declined, with Mugabe's government crushing ZAPU-linked opposition in Matabeleland during the Gukurahundi between 1982 and 1985;