Psychology Maziwisa

Early and personal life

Maziwisa was born on 1 March 1983 in Mutare, Zimbabwe’s third largest city. Son of a schoolteacher, William Chatambudza Maziwisa and his wife Sarah Guku, Maziwisa moved to Inyati Mine with his parents where he began his primary education at Chiropa Primary School. At the age of 8, he was known for eloquently reciting long-worded poems that were prepared for him by his father.

In 1994 Maziwisa would move to Chitungwiza where he attended grade 6 at Seke 6 Primary School and later did part of his secondary schooling at Seke Mhuriimwe High School. His father would soon resign from work due to poor health and in 1999 Maziwisa was accepted at St Joseph’s House for Boys, a Home for orphans and destitute children.

Whilst there, Maziwisa attended Ellis Robins High School, initially through the help of St Joseph’s, and later on through the assistance of renowned late cricket journalist Peter Roebuck. Maziwisa won a series of national awards including scoring a first class in Public Speaking and News Reading. He completed his A Level at Ellis Robins High in 2002.

Tertiary education

Maziwisa read Law at the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) in Pietermaritzburg after being enrolled there by Peter Roebuck. He was known amongst his peers as having a passion for politics and would soon start his own political organization within the university called Principled African Students Organization (PASO). PASO contested in the Student Representative Council (SRC) elections and won 2 out of 10 seats. Maziwisa was elected as the Deputy SRC President.

During his time at the UKZN, Maziwisa was also elected Chairman of the Law Students Council. He also served as an executive of the Black Lawyers Association and sat on the Law School Board as an ex-offio [FM1] member. Maziwisa was a finalist in the University of KwaZulu Natal’s Law School Moot Final.

He graduated in April 2008 and was offered a post as a candidate attorney at Tomlinson Mnguni James Attorneys (TMJ), one of the leading law firms in Pietermaritzburg. As a candidate attorney, Maziwisa was elected President of the Pietermaritzburg Candidate Attorneys Association.

Political career

Maziwisa wrote a series of articles critical of ZANU PF and President Mugabe while serving his articles at TMJ. But after being approached by Saviour Kasukuwere in 2010 9 (then Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment), he tendered his resignation and decided to move back to Zimbabwe to work for Robert Mugabe. This caused a rupture between Maziwisa and his benefactor, Peter Roebuck.

When Peter Roebuck died in 2011, Maziwisa described him as one of the most integral people in his life. He would later reveal that Roebuck had molested him at age 16.

Maziwisa worked as Kasukuwere’s advisor and started to pen hard-hitting articles criticizing Morgan Tsvangirai. In no time, Maziwisa grew to become Tsvangirai’s fiercest critic. Maziwisa ran a blog on newzimbabwe.com and was widely quoted in the print media, and radio as a political commentator. In February 2013, Maziwisa was head-hunted for a role in ZANU PF’s Information Department. He was appointed Deputy Director of Information. Around the same time, he was also appointed to the Zimbabwe Mining Development Board.

As elections drew closer, Maziwisa made headlines when he accused Coca-Cola for disguising its ‘Crazy for Good’ initiative as a genuine marketing tool when in fact it was an attempt to promote the MDC-T. Maziwisa intensified his anti-MDC-T rhetoric in the period leading up to the 31 July elections describing Tsvangirai as a miserable loser who had created more babies than jobs. He officially became ZANU PF spokesperson throughout the election period and was quoted extensively by BBC, BBC Radio, CCTV, SABC, eNCA, and Al-JaZeera.

In April 2015, Maziwisa won the tickect to represent ZANU-PF in the June 2015 by-elections by winning the Highfield West Primary election with a wide margin. In June 2015, Maziwisa won the Highfield West constituency for ZANU PF in a by-election that most opposition parties chose to boycott. It was the first time ZANU PF had won the constituency in 15 years.