PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai marked his 58th birthday on Wednesday with a private party for staff, friends and relatives at his Strathaven home in Harare.

On his birthday last year, Tsvangirai was mourning his wife, Susan, who had died four days earlier in a car crash. The Prime Minister survived the accident with minor head injuries.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti, speaking at the party, said Tsvangirai had “exuded unparalleled fortitude in overcoming personal misfortunes” in the 11 years he has been leader of the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Biti said: “The president’s life has been a painful life of body blow after body blow, which is more or less the painful life of the MDC.

“One of the wonderful characteristics of our president is that he loves people. He has the capacity to speak to all of them with the same humility. From Presidents, Prime Ministers, his drivers and the ordinary man and woman in the streets, he interacts with them with ease and exudes a life of humility to all of them.”

Tsvangirai has survived assassination attempts, brutal assaults, incarceration and the sad loss of his wife but still held it together, Biti added.