Morgan Tsvangirai took the biggest gamble of his life by agreeing this week to go into a powersharing government with his archenemy, Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai, who now seems certain to become prime minister to Mugabe’s president on February 11, is being branded by many of his old allies as a sellout. But most observers believe that in the end he and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had no choice but to opt for the change-from-within strategy, facing relentless pressure from regional leaders. An authoritative official is convinced that what brought about Tsvangirai’s sudden U-turn – in agreeing to the coalition before all his demands had been met, as he had previously insisted – were his impressions of Mugabe in their recent one-on-one meetings. “Tsvangirai saw a tired old man who is seeking a safe exit from the political scene,” said the top official, who did not want to be identified. “Working with him [Mugabe] in government provides a leeway for Morgan to build confidence and pave the stage for Mugabe’s safe retirement and for Morgan himself to take over eventually.”

And even fierce critics of Mugabe, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, are calling on the world to support the unity government. Yesterday the Elders, a group of former leaders which includes Nelson Mandela, urged the international community to support the unity government “to end the terrible suffering” in Zimbabwe. Jimmy Carter, a former United States president and a member of the Elders, said: “This political agreement is far from perfect – but political life involves taking risks. “The international community should now do what it can to give this agreement the best chance of success. Talking it down will not improve the situation for Zimbabweans – it will only prolong their agony.” And Tutu, the chairperson of the Elders, said: “We will be watching closely to ensure that the agreement between the political parties is implemented fairly. But the people of Zimbabwe can no longer be held hostage by politics. Their urgent needs must be met.”

Tsvangirai decided to go into the unity government at a summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Pretoria this week. Though several of his lieutenants immediately denied the statement of President Kgalema Motlanthe, the SADC chairperson, that Tsvangirai had agreed to the coalition, the MDC leader confirmed it later and the party’s national executive council endorsed the decision in Harare on Friday. In a statement after the council meeting, Tsvangirai justified his decision by saying that Mugabe had made concessions on four out of the five demands that the MDC had made going into the summit. Mugabe had agreed to the sharing of provincial governorships, after appointing Zanu PF officials to all of them last year; had agreed to consider legislation for a national security council; had agreed that Constitutional Amendment 19 – laying the constitutional foundation for the unity government – should be adopted before the government was launched and not after; and had agreed that breaches of the Global Political Agreement signed by all the parties on September 15 should be addressed.

This referred to the recent abductions of about 30 MDC supporters. He added that the parties had already begun negotiations on Thursday to agree on a formula for reallocating the governorships and to consider the MDC’s National Security Council Bill. Tsvangirai also noted that a joint monitoring and implementation committee with representatives of all three parties in the new government – Zanu PF, his MDC and Arthur Mutambara’s MDC faction – had been established on Friday to begin addressing the abductions. The committee has powers to refer problems it cannot solve to the unity government and then to SADC and even to the African Union – both of which have guaranteed the unity agreement.

Tsvangirai received a hero’s welcome when he announced to the Harare crowds outside the MDC offices on Friday that the national council had agreed to go into government – a sign that ordinary people are desperate for anything that might lead to a change in their miserable circumstances. But Tsvangirai’s old struggle ally Lovemore Madhuku of the University of Zimbabwe had branded his decision to join Mugabe in government as “catastrophic”. “You don’t abandon a legitimate struggle because it is not producing immediate results. It took decades to defeat apartheid,” Madhuku said, adding that the decision to join the government proved “the poverty of Tsvangirai’s politics”. Though Western governments had indicated that they would not support a unity government if Mugabe remained president, they might reconsider their stance. James McGee, the United States ambassador to Zimbabwe, said the US would assess the unity government on its performance.