Tsvangirai's deposition started at 10:05 GMT with the head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) giving personal details and political history, which started off in the trade union movement.
He denied allegations that he plotted to assassinate Mugabe and arrange a military coup ahead of the March 2002 presidential election, which he lost to Mugabe.
In a trial, which started last February, the state accuses Tsvangirai of requesting help to kill Mugabe ahead of the elections at a meeting in Montreal in December 2001 with Canadian political consultant Ari Ben Menashe.
During examination by his defence lawyer, respected South African advocate George Bizos, Tsvangirai declared his patriotism to Zimbabwe.
"If any suggestion has been made through the media that I am unpatriotic, that I am a puppet, I take that as cheap propaganda," he said.
Tsvangirai, 51, said he was in the 1980s, a member of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), in which he held the position of political commissar for his local branch.
He said he had respect for Mugabe.
"I regarded Robert Mugabe as a hero and the hero of the liberation struggle," a composed Tsvangirai told the packed courtroom.
The trial resumed after judge Paddington Garwe allowed the state to partially amend the charges against the opposition politician, whose party has posed the greatest threat to Mugabe in his nearly 23 years in power. – Reuters.
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