Lovemore Madhuku is a Zimbabwean politician and democracy activist who is best known for being one of the founding members of the National Constituent Assembly or NCA, a pro-democracy group. An active civil society worker, Madhuku served as NCA's President from 2001 to 2011. During his tenure as the President, he aimed at bringing forth a new autonomous constitution in Zimbabwe that would get rid of the one-party rule of Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe since 1987. The highlight of his career came when the NCA successfully defeated a constitution introduced by Mugabe in the national referendum in 2000. Ever since Madhuku has been trying to bring to an end the autocratic rule and establish a democratic constitution in Zimbabwe. He attained his degree in law from the University of Zimbabwe and later did his doctorate degree from the University of Cambridge. He has been appointed as a full-time professor at the University of Zimbabwe since 2011. Madhuku penned the famous textbook, 'An Introduction to Zimbabwean Law' which gives an insight into Zimbabwean legal system

Background and academic career

Madhuku was born on 20 July 1966 in

Chipinge Chipinge, formerly known as Chipinga, is a town in Zimbabwe, located in Chipinge District, in Manicaland Province, in southeastern Zimbabwe, close to the border with Mozambique. Location The town lies approximately , by road, south of Mutare ...

, Zimbabwe. He attended the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), receiving a Bachelor of Law degree in 1990. He then travelled to the UK to study at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, receiving a Master of Law in 1994 and a doctorate in 1999. In 2010, he published a book titled ''An Introduction to Zimbabwean Law''. He was made a full professor at UZ in 2011.

Activism

Madhuku is a founding member of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a pro-democracy group allied with the Movement for Democratic Change led by

Morgan Tsvangirai Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (; ; 10 March 1952 – 14 February 2018) was a Zimbabwean politician who was Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2013. He was president of the Movement for Democratic Change, and later the Movement for Democrati ...

. The group opposes the one-party rule of President

Robert Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of th ...

and seeks to establish a democratic constitution. Madhuku served as its vice president from 1997 to 2001 and its president from 2001 to 2011. In 2000, he helped to defeat a constitution introduced by Mugabe in a national referendum. Mugabe described Madhuku's activities as "opportunism", stating: "There are some fraudulent human rights campaigners like Lovemore Madhuku and his NCA who, when broke, intentionally provoke the police in order to get arrested and raise money from the donors. As such, they easily attract the attention international media line CNN, BBC over nothing. That's the Madhuku survival strategy for you". In November 2001, Madhuku was detained without charge for leading a demonstration after soldiers allegedly strangled a student and threw him from a train. According to journalist Geoffrey Nyarota, Madhuku was also subject to a smear campaign by state-owned media. Madhuku has stated that his country home was burned down and his house in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

badly damaged by attacks. In February 2004, he was arrested during a protest, beaten, and left for dead outside Harare. On recovering, he stated, "We will not be deterred by the beatings and the cruelty of this regime. They can only stop us by killing us." In October of the same year, Mugabe's government introduced a bill into parliament seeking to ban nongovernmental organizations, including the NCA. In November 2006, he was charged with organizing an illegal protest, but a magistrate later dismissed the charges. Police assaulted him again in March 2007, breaking his arm and leaving him with cuts to the head and body. He was summoned to court again in 2011 for his leadership of 2004 protests, drawing international criticism. Madhuku was re-elected as the NCA's chair in 2006 under controversial circumstances, as he had amended its constitution to extend his term of office. According to

Radio Netherlands Radio Netherlands (RNW; ) was a public radio and television network based in Hilversum, producing and transmitting programmes for international audiences outside the Netherlands from 1947 to 2012. Its services in Dutch ended on 11 May 2012. Eng ...

, Madhuku was particularly criticized for serving several terms after having himself criticized Mugabe for serving more than two terms in office. He completed his final term as the group's chair in 2011. Madhuku was awarded the 2004

Civil Courage Prize The Civil Courage Prize is a human rights award which recognizes "steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk—rather than military valor." The prize was founded in 2000 by the Northcote Parkinson Fund. The goal of the prize is not to cre ...

by the US-based Train Foundation, sharing it with Iranian activist Emadeddin Baghi. He was unable to attend the ceremony due to the proposing banning of the NCA, and sending Nyarota to accept it on his behalf. together with Godfrey Nyamukuwa

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Madhuku, Lovemore Living people 1966 births People from Manicaland Province Alumni of the University of Cambridge University of Zimbabwe alumni Academic staff of the University of Zimbabwe Zimbabwean democracy activists Zimbabwean politicians