On 25 March 2024, Heart and Soul Television (HSTV) published an interview that I had with Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) Chairperson Trevor Ncube on his popular weekly show ‘In Conversation with Trevor.’ Thanking me for coming being on the show on X, Trevor described the interview as ‘One of our best shows ever.’
I have him to thank for the invitation and the good work that AMH is doing in covering civic engagement on its platforms. AMH are the publishers of the News Day, the Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent. They are a force in the media space. Many influential media personalities in Zimbabwe have been shaped by this group and many continue to do good work in different civic and business spaces.
It is not lost to me that the show In Conversation with Trevor does attract a lot of attention but mainly from the business community. Indeed, our world has paid more attention to business leadership than it does to civic leadership. I therefore do not take it for granted when a well-established media group like AMH pays attention to civic leadership. I am indebted.
I believe in civic leadership.
In the interview, I cover a lot on civic leadership. I reflect on my own activism and how I ended up in civic leadership. The interview was packed with many issues as we touched human rights, politics, elections, civic leadership, among many other issues.
After the interview, a lot of colleagues reached out to me to expand the threads that we started in the interview. What stood out in all this is my deep belief in civic leadership and its power to share our world. I have decided to make this the subject of this reflection and share some personal stories that have shaped and deepened by belief in civic leadership.
In 2010, I was just starting off in my civic leadership journey as a Researcher at the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (the Forum), leading the Taking Transitional Justice to the People Programme. Under that programme, I was arrested with a colleague, in Machipisa while we were carrying out a transitional justice survey. I worked with a competent team of eight researchers. The project touched a raw nerve with its quest to gauge public opinions and perceptions on past human rights violations that included Gukurahundi. The then Executive Director of the Forum, Abel Chikomo showed leadership when he turned up at Harare Central Police Station’s notorious law and order section and demanded that we be released and that he be the one to be arrested. The police complied and charged him with running an illegal organisation in a case that led to the protracted prosecution of Forum. Chikomo was later acquitted of the charges by the Magistrate Court after international condemnation of what was clearly an attempt to silence civil society and sabotage the Forum’s transitional justice programme.
That same year of my arrest, 2010, was the year when President Obama launched the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) to support an emerging generation of African leaders to drive economic growth, enhance democratic governance, and strengthen the civil society structures that would help the continent grow and prosper. In 2014, he launched the Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF) which in the past 10 years has connected young African leaders to leadership training opportunities at some of America’s top universities, expanding their leadership skills and knowledge. In 2017, I participated in the MWF, spending six weeks at the Presidential Precinct in Charlottesville.
The fellowship did many things for me. Above everything else, the Presidential Precinct is an inspiring place to be. In this place, I met people who strengthened by belief in civic leadership and made me believe that my passion was not misplaced. Among them was Senator Tim Kaine who addressed the 2017 MWF opening ceremony at the University of Virginia.
“It’s so important,” he said, “That people who have the passion that you do consider doing the hard work of politics and government and encourage others to do it… Whatever your passion is, I hope that in the many chapters that make up your life, that part of how you exercise that passion is serving the government of your country.”
I never got into politics, but his plea made me reflect on my service to my country in civil society. He inspired me. At the same event, I also met my favourite author John Grisham and his wife Renee Grisham who both continue to serve the Charlottesville community with distinction. When I returned home after the fellowship, I felt a new sense of purpose to serve. Two years later in 2019, the Presidential Precinct awarded me the Young Leader of the Year Award, in recognition of the work I was doing on transitional justice in Zimbabwe. The award was handed over by John and Renee Grisham, a great honour for me. At the awards ceremony, I got to have conversations with many people who later became a close community in my leadership journey. They include colleagues from Humanity United, Open Society Foundations, the Zimbabwe Working Group, National Endowment for Democracy, the United States Institute of Peace among others.
I remember the then CEO of the Presidential Precinct, Neal Piper, speaking to the Voice of America (VOA) about his hope for the work of civic leaders in Zimbabwe.
That same year, I was appointed to be the National Director for the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights), Zimbabwe’s largest grassroots movement of over 250 000 members. This is the place I continue to serve. In my leadership journey at ZimRights for the past five years, my resolve has strengthened. I got an opportunity to lead from the front, and from the ground. I took over ZimRights at a time when it was on shaky ground and the future was uncertain. It was a trying moment for me. Five years later, ZimRights has managed to turn around, leading in civic engagement and grassroots mobilisation.
Looking back, it is true that this was also a moment of growth and passionate service. I spent more time trying to develop strategies for mobilising communities to lead in finding solutions to the problems in their communities. It was during this time that I had the benefit of many mentors who made it very clear to me that no matter the problem, community is the answer. But to get communities to deliver the answers, we need leaders who provide ethical leadership. I was to fall in love with activists driving change from around the world and embraced the philosophy of John C. Maxwell, that everything rises and falls on leadership. I stopped fretting over problems and accepted them as my leadership assignment. One of my mentors, Deprose Muchena, Senior Director for Human Rights Impact at Amnesty International often said to me, ‘Crisis moments are the birthplace for inspiring leadership.’
Last year in 2024, after appearing on In Conversation with Trevor, I spent a better part speaking about civic leadership at the invitation of different organisations who believed I was addressing some important issues.
As we cross into 2025, my belief in the importance of civic leadership in addressing our most wicked challenges remains strong. At ZimRights, I introduced a leadership development programme that has transformed the organisation at different levels. Beyond ZimRights, I have become part of a community of civic leaders who have shown passion for this work and are not the usual civic leader. In my spare time, I have answered the invitation by many emerging leaders to help them through mentorship and accompaniment. At the end of 2024, the National Association for Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO) awarded me the NGO Director of the Year.
These developments that I highlight are not just a reflection of the work that I do, but most importantly what I believe. I believe in civic leadership.
After my appearance on In Conversation with Trevor, I started paying attention when Trevor brought civic leaders on the programme. It is my hope that one of these days I will be able to sponsor a Civic Leadership Series on In Conversation with Trevor.
I believe civic leadership is just as important as business leadership and it is a big deal when the media takes time to dig deep and reflect on civic leadership. These are not conversations that you find in many spaces. When business leaders wrote to me and said, ‘I enjoyed the conversation’, I was pleased. I thanked God for the grace to serve in this space. I pray that one day, in my lifetime, civic leadership conversations and literature will become mainstream, just as business leadership is. I continue to pray that one day, our society will invest equally or even more in civic leadership as it does in business leadership. We have seen the rise in transformational business leadership, thanks to the consciousness that our world as developed, there are great stories of success that we hear every day, despite the few bad apples.
In almost every university, you will find the school of business, teaching business leadership. Business is what it is because the world has paid attention and invested in leadership. And as John Maxwell says, ‘Everything rises and falls on leadership.’ With similar zeal, I pray that every university considers establishing the School of Civic Leadership to invest in transformational civic leaders. Our country has suffered greatly from brain drain and the civic space has not been spared. Some of Zimbabwe’s most brilliant civic leaders have joined the global space, doing wonders and yet our own civic space is impoverished. The focus should not be to bring them back but rather to grow more of their kind from among us.
I said to AMH, thank you for your investment in highlighting the work of civic leaders in Zimbabwe. And thanks to all journalists who are doing their best to highlight the relevance of civic engagement in different spaces. I also give tribute to the institutions that have invested in me and continue to invest in civic leaders around the world. I am aware of the good work being done by the Institute of Peace Leadership and Governance (IPLG) at Africa University, Arrupe Jesuit University’s School of Ethics and Leadership, the Mandela School at the University of Cape Town, the Presidential Precinct in the USA, among many others that are helping us realise the importance and value of civic leadership in our world.
The work that civic leaders do in the age of authoritarianism, must never be underestimated. In the interview with Trevor, we spoke about a lot of things. In a conversation that is slightly over an hour, we put in there a lot of content that touched over six topics. I appreciate the fact that HSTV removed nothing from the interview. They captured everything, just as it is. We spoke about elections and democracy, civic leadership, human rights activism, civil society sustainability, civil society governance, rule of law and governance, among many other things. Each of these could be a separate conversation, very important for our country.
We spoke about activism and I got an opportunity to reflect on my own activism. I told Trevor that you don’t find activism. “Activism finds you in the face of injustice.” I said, “Activism is stepping forward, using the tools that you have , to cause positive change, inspired by the care you have for the community.”
Trevor Ncube stepped in a said it beautifully. He said something that will go on my wall. “Activism is an engaged citizenship, a caring citizenship, a citizenship that exercises its constitutional right and responsibility to oversee the government of the day.” (Emphasis added.) Activism is a labour of love. Activism says an injury to one, is an injury to all.
Every year, in the month of April at ZimRights we are observe the anniversary of the killing of Levison Ncube in Mabuthweni on 6 April 2020. Levison succumbed to injuries after being assaulted by police officers for breaking lockdown rules. When the murder happened, we made so much noise. Around the same time, the movement, Black Lives Matter went global protesting the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in the United States of America (USA). I addressed a meeting that was attended by a group of Zimbabweans. When I asked if anyone recognised the name ‘George Floyd’, every Zimbabwean in the room knew that George Floyd was an African American who was killed in Minneapolis by a white police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street. They were outraged. I asked the same group if they recognised the name Levison Ncube. Silence. No one knew. And in that silence, injustice grows and spreads like a pandemic.
I asked the question, “What do we need to do here in Africa, and in Zimbabwe to be precise, to make ordinary people angry about an act of injustice?”
If we care about the world we live in, the world that our children will grow up in, we cannot sit back and watch like a movie, while the violent are tearing down everything we believe in. For many years, I have always wondered, “Why does it feel right to sit back in the face of injustice? Why are we not moved to action?” This is the question that civic leadership seeks to answer, and the reality that activism seeks to change. This work is important. Without it, humanity would not have stood up to the injustice of slavery and colonialism. Without it, we would not today be able to confront the rising tide of war, violence and authoritarianism.
This is what Archbishop Fulton Sheen meant when he said,
“Freedom is not an heirloom, but a life. Once received, it does not continue to exist without effort, like an old painting. As life must be nourished, defended, and preserved; so, freedom must be repurchased in each generation.”
It matters not what one’s profession is, the obligation to defend our freedom and fight for justice falls on us all. If you are a medical doctor, there is space for you. When Dr. Mashumba, a paediatrician was faced with the injustice of children dying in her face from lack adequate medical care support in March 2019, she stood and wept before the Minister of Health and before journalists, tears streaming down her cheeks. She was not weeping for better remuneration but for the lives of all children dying from curable diseases. She played her role. Through her successful practice, she continues to play her role every day.
In the face of injustice, we have an obligation to respond. And this should not be left to NGOs or the so called activists. It is everyone’s business. We are all activists. When an injustice happens, there is no thinking about who should act. We all must act out of our human instinct. The doctor. The lawyer. The judge. The journalist. The vendor. We are all activists. Our positive acts are inspired by love, the care we have for each other and our community.
We rise, together! We speak out, we stand up, we write, we join a movement – whatever tools at our disposal, we use them to do something. No one must claim paralysis. Everyone has got something to give. This is what Martin Luther King Junior meant when he said, “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
In the age of rising authoritarianism and a total disregard for the eternal values of love and justice, we are all activists and civic leadership matters.
