Hundreds throng airport as Zimbabwe opposition leader's body flown in

Hundreds thronged Zimbabwe's main airport Saturday as the body of opposition icon Morgan Tsvangirai, who died of cancer in neighbouring South Africa, arrived home for burial. Tsvangirai, a fearless opponent to the ruling ZANU-PF party, died on Wednesday at the age of 65 after a lengthy battle with colon cancer.
Supporters and officials from his Movement for Democratic Change party, gathered at Robert Mugabe International Airport, broke into Christian hymns and party songs as the plane bearing his remains landed. "We have received the body of our president, our hero, our icon, our patriot and great leader," said one of Tsvangirai's three deputies Nelson Chamisa.
The body was taken to a military camp where the bodies of national heroes lie in state before burial. Tsvangirai will be buried on Tuesday in his rural home in Buhera, 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of Harare. Opposition compatriots earlier held memorial services in the capital Harare and in the second city of Bulawayo to honour Tsvangirai who was often derided by former president Robert Mugabe as "a stooge of the west."
In Bulawayo, Tsvangirai's former deputy Welshman Ncube praised Tsvangirai for forgiving even his persecutors in government who beat him up. "He had no bitterness at all, no bitterness that over the years they vilified him, arrested him, beat him and laid treason charges against him," Ncube said. "He was selfless."
He said Tsvangirai called him to his house in January and hinted that he would not live to see the country's upcoming elections expected by July this year. "The meeting was very emotional. He said 'Let us be realistic. I won't make it. I won't be with you in this campaign'." The election is the first to held without Robert Mugabe in nearly four decades. Tsvangirai was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016.