The outspoken critic of the current Zanu-PF government led by ED Mnangagwa has died.
Alex Tawanda Magaisa, a Zimbabwean academic and law lecturer at the University of Kent in the United is reported to have died due to cardiac arrest.
He was aged 46.
It was confirmed yesterday that he suffered a cardiac arrest at Margate Hospital around 10am on Sunday morning.
Most Zimbabweans who knew him and his great works are in shock. They took to different social media platforms to air their condolences.
Academic giant Ibbo Mandaza tweeted,
“Just received the sad news that Alex Magaisa is no more; a great loss to Zimbabwe’s intellectual community, to the struggle for a better and democratic Zimbabwe.”
Job Wiwa Sikhala tweeted:
“So sad that he passed on. He was a gentleman to many and a great friend to men and women across the political divide.
” We never thought God would do what he wants with his person. It was unexpected and it’s a shock.
A friend & a colleague.
Rest in peace Musaigwa !!!”
Mduduzi Mathuthu who is the Zim Live Editor expressed his sorrow too.
“Alex Magaisa’s death, at the height of his intellectual powers, is an extremely shocking event and setback for the pro-democracy movement in Zimbabwean. He brought such clarity to political and legal discourse in our country and I hope he will forever be remembered. R.I.P bro!”
Award winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono yesterday joined in to say Zimbabwean clouds have been turned black before he dished out the sad news.
He later on confirmed that,
” Zimbabwe public intellectual Dr Alex Magaisa @Wamagaisa has died.
He suffered a cardiac arrest this morning at Margate Hospital at 10am…”
Magaisa trained as a lawyer, first at the University of Zimbabwe in the mid 90s and then at the University of Warwick in the UK, where he did his postgraduate studies from 1999 to 2003.”
Magaisa took leave of absence from the University of Kent when he was involved as an expert advisor in the Constitution making process which culminated in current Zimbabwe Constitution that was adopted at a referendum in March 2013.
He was thereafter appointed advisor to the then Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, the late Morgan Tsvangirai in the Government of National Unity.
It is when he returned to the United Kingdom that he continued bogging until the emergence of the Big Saturday Read, (BSR) .
The BSR was well received and read. In the BSR, Magaisa produced hard hitting facts that exposed government ineptitude, misinterpretation of the law, misrepresentation of facts, human rights abuses, economic factors, corruption and many other topics of interest.
The BSR receive a lot of backlash from government supporters in the Zanu-PF stable such as George Charamba and a whole multitudes of Door varakashi.
Some of his famous writings are,
ZEC has broad powers to ensure a free, fair, and credible election,
Presidential Decree – A Bout of Economic Madness and a Cocktail of Illegalities,
Supreme court of public opinion: Preliminary observations on the by-elections,
BSR: Understanding the Geography of State Power,
BSR Special: Yellow Sunday – Some observations on the CCC’s Star Rally.
In one of his social media platforms Magaisa revealed that he enjoyed good debates, especially on politics and current affairs.
On his LinkedIn account Magaisa wrote,
“Later, I was retained as an advisor to the then Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, also the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change. Being asked to play that role was also a humbling experience. The election in July 2013 did not go very well or at least, not as we had hoped but I learnt a lot in my maiden foray on the political front. I saw first hand the interaction between law and politics. It’s experience that will be useful some day in the future,” he said.
Besides the BSR he has other writings on the constitution-making process as well as a book called July 31.
In the book he gives his views in what really transpired in that momentous election – as he saw it from a vantage point.
Magaisa revealed that he also loved fiction and had authored a book titled Tears of the Soil.
He had hopes of the book being published in 2015. The book tells a story of Zimbabwe, which is not necessarily what the world audience is used to, and had hoped that people out there would connect with it.
Magaisa dies without seeing the democratic Zimbabwe he wrote and envisaged about.
Death has robbed advocates of democracy in limbo and a vacuum in the academic world. The BSR will be sadly missed as it has inspired many a scholar.
While his soul we wish for his departed soul to rest in eternal peace his writings will forever carry a message of advice, hope, inspiration and wisdom.
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