Tapiwa Zivira

Who is Tapiwa Zivira?

Tapiwa Zivira is a Zimbabwean digital journalist who works for Alpha Media Holdings, the biggest independent media house in Zimbabwe. He started his career at the time when the Robert Mugabe government was at the height of cracking down on the independent press.

In March 2007, as an intern, he wrote an account describing the death of Gift Tandare, an opposition Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai activist who was shot by police while demonstrating in the high-density suburb of Highfield, Harare.

After the publication of the story, Zivira was savagely beaten up by police while covering a demonstration by a pressure group, The Combined Harare Residents' Association.

Zivira later joined The General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe as an information officer. In December 2008, Zivira was arrested together with the leadership of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions while covering a demonstration against Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono's quasi fiscal policies that saw the Zimbabwe dollar losing its value and affecting the working class's wages.

In 2009 Zivira was part of the team that produced the report on the abuse of farm workers during the land reform programme. The report If something is wrong and the documentary House of Justice received international attention on the atrocities committed by the government of Robert Mugabe on the farm workers.