Dr. Alex Magaisa, a former special adviser to the late Morgan Tsvangirai, has died, according to reports. Ibbo Mandaza, a Zimbabwean researcher and author, broke the news first, followed by journalist Hopewell Chin’ono on Twitter. Dr. Magaisa had a heart attack this morning at Margate Hospital in the United Kingdom. Hopewell Chin’ono had hinted that a black cloud had dropped on the country twenty-eight minutes before breaking the news, before warning his followers that he would release the information after the deceased’s family had given him permission.
Nelson Chamisa, the head of the Citizens Coalition for Change, stated:
“It’s a major setback. He died without seeing his heart’s ambition realized: a new and magnificent Zimbabwe.”
According to a family spokeswoman, Magaisa was sent to the hospital on Friday “after a series of blackouts and suffering a heart arrest at approximately 10 a.m.” on Sunday. When his wife was called, doctors valiantly attempted to rescue him, but he died before she arrived. He was a law professor at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom.
Zimbabwean clouds have been turned black!
Heartbreaking news.
Will give full details once I get the go ahead from the family. pic.twitter.com/rrP6rG1jeE
— Hopewell Chin’ono (@daddyhope) June 5, 2022
What is known about Dr. Alex Magaisa, a late Zimbabwean lecturer?
Magaisa was born in the Zimbabwean district of Chikomba. He finished high school at St. Francis of Assisi High Institution, which is a residential school. He subsequently enrolled in the University of Zimbabwe, where he graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Laws degree. Dr. Alex Magaisa was a well-known Zimbabwean lawyer and constitutional scholar who taught law at the United Kingdom’s University of Kent Law School.
From 2012 to 2013, he served as an adviser to former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Dr. Magaisa was also a member of the advisory group to COPAC, the organization responsible for creating Zimbabwe’s Constitution, which was passed in 2013. In order to participate in the constitution-making process, Dr. Magaisa had to leave the University of Kent in 2011. Before enrolling in graduate school at the University of Warwick in 1999, the renowned professor obtained his first law degree from the University of Zimbabwe. Magaisa earned a Ph.D. in law from the same university in 2003.
He was the creator of a popular blog that gave in-depth studies on Zimbabwean law and politics. He was well-known for his legal, political, and social observations on Zimbabwe and other developing-country issues. As part of an initiative to improve Zimbabwe’s constitutionalism and democratic civic culture, Dr. Magaisa authored a guidebook on citizens’ basic rights and freedoms under the new constitution during his fellowship.
Alex Magaisa assessed Zimbabwe’s election preparations and democratic possibilities, including post-election scenarios and the role of the military and the international community. Dr. Magaisa discussed Zimbabwean political events on the BBC, Al Jazeera, Radio 702 in South Africa, and the SABC, among other foreign platforms. He also founded and wrote The Big Saturday Read, a “platform geared at critically examining legal and political issues relevant to Zimbabwe, Africa, and the globe in general.”
