Harare – Zimbabwean Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai is reportedly battling for his life in South Africa where he is receiving medical attention.

Tsvangirai, a former prime minister, announced in 2016 that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer and had begun chemotherapy.

He hoped to lead a united opposition into 2018’s general elections.

Reports on Friday said Tsvangirai’s situation had gone dire, with NewsDay saying that his doctors had indicated he had “three months to live”.

The report quoted sources as saying that although Tsvangirai was “alive and responding to treatment, his health continued to deteriorate”.

His medical team had since summoned his close relatives to South Africa “to update them on his latest condition”, the report said.

Meanwhile, another Zimbabwe online publication, NewZimbabwe.com, said that Tsvangirai’s doctors had stopped him from flying to Germany for further treatment, as they feared the long flight to the European country “was not safe for his deteriorating condition”.

Tsvangirai recently hinted that he would retire from politics.

He won the most votes in the first-round of the 2008 presidential elections, but poll officials said it was not enough to avoid a run-off against Mugabe.

As Zanu-PF ruling party loyalists unleashed a wave of violence, Tsvangirai pulled out of the race and became prime minister in a power-sharing government in which he was widely seen as being outmanoeuvered by then president of the country, Robert Mugabe.