Alec Muchadehama
Alec Muchadehama is a practicing lawyer specialising in civil rights, labour law, constitutional law, criminal law and media law. He is also a partner at Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni legal practioners and a member of the Law Society of Zimbabwe. He has won numerous Human Rights awards locally and internationally. Mr. Muchadehama is a board member at the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADR) as well as at Belvedere Technical Teachers' College.
Education
Alec Muchadehama holds the BL. (Hons), LL.B and MBA degrees from the University of Zimbabwe. He is also the chairperson of the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ).
Career
Admitted to practice in Zimbabwe as a Legal Practitioner, Conveyancer and Notary Public in October 1991, Alec Muchadehama served as a public prosecutor for seven years and has a wide experience in criminal litigation. Alec has also been a part-time Commissioner (Presiding Officer) of the Small Claims Court at the Bulawayo Magistrates’ Courts, Tredgold for three years. He resigned from the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs having risen to the rank of Senior Law Officer. He joined private practice in 1997, at Chihambakwe Mutizwa & Partners. He was a partner for one and a half years at Chihambakwe Mutizwa & Partners before he resigned to set up Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni in 2001. He is the current board chairperson for the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) and the transitional Justice Working Group in Zimbabwe. He also sits on the Belvedere Techncal Teachers’ College (BTTC) and Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) Boards.
Alec Muchadehama has been a member of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) in Harare since 2003, where he works defending human rights in Zimbabwe. He has defended hundreds of human rights activists, members of the opposition and civilians, often successfully. He also travels across his home country to track down activists who have disappeared and to be present when arrests are made to gather information about the situation and to assist the victims.[1]
Prosecution
In June 2009 he was prosecuted for having cooperated with the ‘illegal release’ of journalist Andrison Manyere and two members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the largest opposition party, which was founded in 1999. It is suspected that his prosecution was also related to his representation of a number of MDC members and human rights activists who were suspected of attempting to undermine the authority of the late former President Robert Mugabe. Muchadehama was acquitted by the end of 2009.
Awards
He has won several local and international awards for his advocacy for Human Rights and Rule of Law in Zimbabwe, notably the inaugural Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Lawyer (2003), Nominee for the Human Rights Lawyer of the year for the years 2004-2006, inaugural winner of the Artists for Human Rights Festival Award 2007-08, inaugural winner of the Civic Organisations Human Rights Award 2010, first runner up for the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association Human Rights Award 2011, the inaugural Dutch Foundation Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2011 and the Walter Kamba Rule of Law Award 2014 which was conferred by the Law Society of Zimbabwe.[2] Muchadehama received a number of local awards and is the first recipient of the Lawyers for Lawyers Award, in 2011.
