Morgan Tsvangirai Profile

The details have yet to emerge of Zimbabwe's deal brokered by South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, but Morgan Tsvangirai looks set to become prime minister, with real power to deal with his country's prolonged crisis.

It has been a long road for Tsvangirai. The eldest of nine children, he left school at 16 to help support his family. By the age of 20 he had joined his local textile union and when he transferred to work at a nickel mine two years later, he had become a labour activist.

Over the next decade he rose through the ranks of the Associated Mine Workers Union, becoming a branch chairman and later a member of its executive. In 1988, he was elected secretary general of the Zimbabwe's equivalent of the TUC, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).

At the time the movement was still attached to Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party but relations deteriorated over subsequent years as the economy deteriorated. The following year he was to have his first spell in prison - accused of being a South African spy.

Tsvangirai eventually became Mugabe's main political challenger through his leadership of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. Although heavily influenced by the trade union movement, the MDC incorporated church, business, women's and students' organizations as well as other interest groups.

As Zimbabwe descended into economic chaos, Tsvangirai and the MDC stepped up their challenge to the government through a series of nationwide strikes that brought the opposition into more direct conflict with Mugabe.

Tsvangirai's MDC came close to winning power in parliamentary elections in 2000 and in a presidential vote in 2002. His credentials, however, were questioned after a serious split in MDC ranks in 2005, when he overruled a decision by the party's leadership to take part in elections for the senate and ordered a boycott.

Tsvangirai seemed a fading force after the MDC split, but Mugabe's tactics of harassment and intimidation backfired and only enhanced the opposition leader's image. He was badly beaten after he took part in a prayer meeting that police claimed was illegal.

Mugabe said the veteran trade unionist "deserved" his treatment for disobeying police orders, but pictures of a battered Tsvangirai did wonders for his reputation as a man with enough guts to stand up to an increasingly ruthless ruler.

In an effort to discredit Tsvangirai, the government had accused him of plotting to kill Mugabe ahead of the controversial 2002 elections with the prosecution's case resting on the testimony of Ari Ben-Menashe, a Canada-based consultant.

Menashe testified that in a secretly filmed meeting in December 2001, Tsvangirai asked him to arrange Mugabe's assassination. The defence team said the tape was doctored as part of a plot to entrap Tsvangirai and the court subsequently acquitted Tsvangirai of the treason charges.

While Tsvangirai's bravery is not an issue, there have been questions about his political judgment and an authoritarian streak that was evident during the MDC split. The world will soon find out whether he measures up to his new status.