A rebuttal of the Masimba Mavaza narrative of linking deported criminals to MDC Alliance

By Danmore Sithole

Dr Masimba Mavaza between the 20th of July and the 5th of August 2021 penned seven articles shamelessly linking deported criminals to the MDC Alliance. In his most recent article, he had the audacity to call MDC Alliance supporters rogues.

He marks his crossing of the red line by the article entitled “Mass deportations exposes MDC’s double standards”, published by Bulawayo 24 News on the 20th of July 2021. Besides attacking MDC Alliance specifically, he also makes unpalatable remarks about the general Zimbabwean community in the UK.

What motivates him to be such a dishonest busybody?  Mandla Khumalo in his article entitled “The truth about Dr Masimba Mavaza”, states boldly that Dr Mavaza is a Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operative planted in the UK to destabilise the opposition.  

It boggles the mind how Mavaza who is ZANU PF lock, stock and barrel can associate MDC Alliance with criminals without providing any shred of evidence. In any case, the crimes committed by these criminals seem to be from the Gukurahundi manual. He cannot get away with soiling the good name of the MDC Alliance in UK while he sings for his supper.

I know from my own experience that Dr Mavaza is a heartless conman. He duped me of my £1400. Being swindled by Dr Mavaza was excruciating; an experience that one cannot even wish for his enemies. I find it bizarre that such a conman wants to act as a holier than thou over all and sundry.

I met Dr Mavaza in 2010 in church just outside London. He was introduced to me by an Elder. He was introduced as a Church Elder and experienced Immigration Solicitor who had worked at the Home Office.

We exchanged business cards. The Pastor was in the vicinity; hence it was a perfect setting for a “live brotherly ever after” relationship. But alas what a hellish experience it turned out to be.

My visa was due to expire in 2011. From January 2011 Mavaza pestered me with calls as he embarked on a grooming exercise. I paid him £1400 cash for the visa renewing process. He promised that his firm IEI Solicitors was going to email the receipt, but this never happened.  

After two weeks my documents were returned by Home Office sighting that the card that had been used to make payment had insufficient funds. Dr Mavaza blamed the Home Office for having debited the wrong card. He asked me to take the documents to him so that he could resubmit.

I did exactly that. This time he said the Home Office would communicate directly with him. He claimed Home Office had acknowledged receipt of documents and we were awaiting the outcome of their determination.

My employers then asked for an official acknowledgement from the Home Office which he never produced. Instead, he opted to write or phone them. At one point he made an appointment to meet my Board, but he did not show up. In the end they lost trust in me, and I was fired.

At that point, I was unemployed and unemployable, thanks to Masimba. But he still had more evil to dish out, sizzling hot from hell. He asked me to pay and sit for Life in the UK test. I passed the test convincingly and sent him the certificate.

I was still giving him the benefit of doubt. When he moved to a new firm Walters Solicitors, he took my file with him. He told me that the two firms had a formula to split the fee I had paid. At some point, he gave me an appointment to meet him at Walter Solicitors offices in Leicester to do some barometric tests (these tests are done at designated Post Offices all over UK).

On arrival the Practice Manager told me that Dr Mavaza was on leave from that very day. They phoned him but his phone was switched off. I had travelled from London. Angry and frustrated I thought of the day I had met him.  I asked myself how he could make the house of God a ‘crime scene’?

I needed to know the state of my application at the Home Office as soon as possible. I contacted my MP Meg Hiller so that she could make inquiries at the Home Office for me. I had been advised by a civil society organisation Stand Up for Africa (SUFA) that; inquiries from an MP get attended to as soon as possible and they get the attention of the most senior person in that government department.

The response stated that there was no application at the Home Office. I will forever be grateful for the timely support from SUFA and the swift intervention from my MP. Maybe this explains why Masimba has been castigating Human Rights Organisations and British politicians in his articles.

I wrote to Mr Walters of Walters Solicitors complaining and demanding my file back. The reply came from Masimba himself stating that they did not have my file and I was not their client.  This is the same Masimba who in one of his articles says, “lets uphold the ethics and values of Zimbabwe”. Really?

With the support of SUFA I reported both firms to the Legal Ombudsman. Against the IEI I demanded my money back and the Ombudsman ruled in my favour. Against Walters Solicitors I demanded my file back but I lost the case. I desperately needed my file, especially my passport.

SUFA wrote to Masimba and so did another human rights organisation Praxis but there was no response. I had to apply for a new passport from Zimbabwe so that I could make a fresh application.

I reported Mavaza to the Solicitor Regulation Authority (SRA). SRA informed me that Masimba had been deregistered in 2010. This means by the time he swindled me he had already been deregistered. Ishiri enemuririro wayo ka iyi or amanzi kayideli indlela yawo, batsho beqinisile.

The Irish philosopher Edmund Burke admonished us that “All that is required for evil to triumph is for the good men to do nothing”. In light of this, the Masimba strategy must be exposed in the public interest.

The strategy starts with a presentation of him as a morally upright, holy, and legal expert. This feature is visible in all his articles where he gives unsolicited legal advice. Next is the grooming phase. This involves an avalanche of calls. Then the baiting phase includes making offers and making payment.  

After that it’s a series of lies and deceit punctuated by his common phrase “No news is good news”. All this is calculated to discard the victim tactically or outright.  At this phase the victim is in limbo to put it mildly, or proverbial he or she is between the rock and hard place.

I was subjected to the chikuku vata vata or lala laza ngikwengule tactics and then came a point he needed to discard me instantly. Why has he appointed himself the Embassy spokesperson on deportations? Is he openly giving away his CIO credential?

Why is he exhibiting the traits of the woman that had killed her baby in the case that King Solomon had to exercise his legendary Solomonic wisdom?  Could it be that he is hoping that the deportations will help him discard some instantly and permanently? The Masimba strategy stinks to the higher heavens.

The time is now that we should shift a few gears up in our “Amadoda sibili” mode and tell it as it is. Dubious characters like Masimba are found in ZANU PF.

Danmore Sithole (FRSA- Fellow for the Royal Society of Arts) is also the Research and Public Policy Portfolio Secretary for the MDC Alliance UK and Ireland Province.