He was the second and last Secretary General of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) who organised the party during the Lancaster House talks[2] and served in government before his popularity as a potential rival to Robert Mugabe caused their estrangement.

[4] Edgar Zivanai "2-Boy" (nom de guerre) Tekere was an early ally of Robert Mugabe within the Zimbabwe African National Union (of which he was a founder member in 1964) during the fight for independence and against the Rhodesian Front government of Ian Smith.

Mugabe and Tekere, having served eleven and a half years in Hwa-Hwa Penitentiary & Gonakudzingwa State Prison as political prisoners of Ian Smith's government, immediately left upon release and crossed the Eastern Highlands Border in Mutare through the mountains by foot, following the Gairezi river trail to Seguranza military camp in Mozambique, to mastermind and kickstart guerilla warfare, aided by Samora Machel, in 1975.

harassment of Tekere's close family members and relatives by the platoon of Rhodesian Front Soldiers, Selous Scouts, Police Special Branch and Central Intelligence Organisation, under the auspices of Ian Smith.

Edgar Tekere being the ZANU-PF Secretary General, personally invited Bob Marley to perform at Rufaro Stadium, for the official Zimbabwean Independence Celebration.

Shortly after his appointment, on 4 August 1980 he greeted then-Prime Minister Mugabe and visiting President of Mozambique Samora Machel in combat fatigues, announcing that he was going "to fight a battle."

Both assessors, over-ruling the judge, Mr Justice Pittman, held that while Tekere had killed Adams, he was acting in terms of an utter conviction that state security was at risk.

[citation needed] At the trial, there was a lack of evidence led that Edgar Tekere and his platoon had first gone looking for ZAPU operatives before conducting a military style sweep of the farm on which the farmer was killed.

However, by a majority, it found that as he had acted in "good faith" at the time, he was entitled to indemnification under a law that Ian Smith, the previous Rhodesian Prime Minister, had enacted despite widespread opposition to protect his security forces during the Bush War.

In his 2010 self-published book "The Other – without fear, favour or prejudice" Greenland states, for the first time, that Pitman made a surprising and inexplicable "about-face", having first been firmly of the view that Tekere was entitled to the indemnity and then changing his mind without proffering good reason.

A letter sent to him by ZANU (PF) national chairman John Nkomo dated 7 April 2006 said, "You will not exercise your right to be elected to any office in the party for a period of five years.

This occurred following a chronic prostate cancer, and had a medical history of suffering from undiagnosed post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a military war veteran which brought about erratic intermittent alcoholism behaviour tendencies.