Tapiwa Zivira: Difference between revisions

<gallery> File:Tapiwa.jpg|Tapiwa Zivira

Tapiwa Zivira is a prominent Zimbabwean human rights journalist who has worked for The Zimbabwe Standard newspaper as an intern reporter. It was while he was at The Standard that Zivira was distinctively fearless in the face of media suppression by the Robert Mugabe government. In March 2007, he was savagely beaten up by police while covering a demonstration by the Combined Harare Residents Association. It was during the same week that Tapiwa wrote an account describing the death of Gift Tandare, an opposition Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai activist who was shot by police while demontsrating in the high density surbub of Highfield, Harare. Zivira later joined The General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe as an information officer and there he continued to use his journalistic background to advocate for the rights of farm workers. In December 2008, Zivira was arrested together with the leadership of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions after taking part in a demonstration against Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono's quasi fiscal policies that saw the Zimbabwe Dollar losing it value and affecting the working class' wages. In 2009 Zivira was part of the team that produced the damning report on the abuse of farm workers during the infamous land reform programme. The report If something is wrong and the documentary House of Justice recieved international attention on the atrocities committed by the government of Robert Mugabe on the farm workers. Zivira and his boss Gertrude Hambira were forced to flee in February 2010 after the dreaded Intelligence officials besieged the GAPWUZ offices. Zivira continues to work for GAPWUZ and writes human rights stories for The Zimbabwean newspaper. Zivira was born on September 26, 1985 in the high density surbub of Highfield. He had his primary education at Mumurwi School in the district of Bindura, Zimbabwe before moving to Highfield High School for his Secondary and high school education. in 2005 Zivira enrolled at the Christian College of Sourthern Africa for his journalism studies before joining The Standard in 2007. He remains a significant figure in the fight for the rights of Zimbabwe's marginalised farm workers who hav had to face eviction and retrenchment, leaving them with no source of livelihood.