Zimbabwe’s major opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai has died aged 65 after a battle with colon cancer.

Elias Mudzuri, the vice president of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) , reported Tsvangirai’s death in a post on Twitter on Wednesday . Tsvangirai founded the MDC in 1999.

Tsvangirai had been in and out of hospital in South Africa after revealing in 2016 that he had colon cancer. He was the main challenger to Robert Mugabe in the 2008 presidential elections.

Having secured 47 percent of the votes in the first round, compared to  Mugabe’s 43 percent he could well have been on his way to becoming Zimbabwe’s president . Mugabe ended up being the sole candidate in the second round as Tsvangirai boycotted the vote due to a campaign of violence against his supporters. Tsvangirai later joined a unity government formed in 2009 by the dictatorial Mugabe and served as prime minister.

In death,he left a legacy of fearless opposition to one of the most repressive regimes ever witnessed on the African continent’