Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, has cancelled a trip to Ghana after learning of the death of Isaac Matongo, the party's founding chairman.

Tsvangirai was expected in Ghana today, together with Thokozani Khupe, the vice president of a faction of the opposition party loyal to Tsvangirai.

"I was just getting up to go to the airport when the president (Tsvangirai) called to say we had lost Matongo. It's a hard one to take," she said.

The MDC is seen as the biggest challenge to President Robert Mugabe, but the party has been rocked by splits with two factions emerging -- one led by Tsvangirai and another led by Arthur Mutambara, a former student leader and NASA rocket scientist.