The late academic, Alex Tawanda Magaisa, who died in England on Wednesday, has been declared people’s national hero, Civil Society Organisations have said.
The former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s advisor died on Sunday at Margate Hospital in the United Kingdom after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Addressing journalists in Harare, the Secretary for the Constitutional Law Centre (CLC), Dzikamai Bere, said they have set aside five days of mourning to honor Magaisa.
“Magaisa chose to live his life in the public square with the ordinary struggling masses of Zimbabwe. For that, he deserves to become a people’s hero.
“In his own words, he said, “Heroes are not decided in boardrooms. They are decided by the work they do during their lifetime” and in that regard, on behalf of the millions of Zimbabweans whose lives were touched by Alex Magaisa, today we declare Dr. Alex Tawanda Magaisa the people of Zimbabwe’s national hero.
“In line with this declaration and in consultation with the family and friends, we are declaring from today five days of mourning,” said Bere.
He said a lot of activities are lined up for the five day mourning period of the late academic.
“During these days, starting from today, a series of activities have been lined up to give Dr. Magaisa a befitting send-off.
“As tribute to the late intellectual, CLC has lined up a lot of activities for the next five days.
“On Wednesday at 7pm, we will host a memorial space to honor the hero, an inaugural memorial lecture on Thursday at 5pm which will be hosted by top human rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, a virtual memorial service on Zoom, and Facebook live streaming on Friday, a big Saturday march in memory of the famous big Saturday read (BSR), which will start from Africa Unity Square at 11 am and the fifth event will be confirmed as we await repatriation,” he said.
Magaisa worked at the University of Warwick, the University of Nottingham and since 2007, he was based at Kent Law School, the University of Kent at the time of his death on 5 June 2022.
His main area of teaching and research was company and financial services law.