Psychology Maziwisa

Education

Maziwisa graduated with a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.^[1] He was known amongst his peers as having a passion for politics and would soon start his own political organisation within the university dubbed Principled African Students Organization (PASO). PASO contested in the Student Representative Council (SRC) elections and won 2 out of 10 seats. Maziwisa was elected as the Deputy SRC President.^[1]

Political career

Maziwisa wrote a series of articles critical of ZANU PF and Robert Mugabe while serving his articles at Tomlinson Mnguni James Attorneys.^[2] After being approached by Saviour Kasukuwere in 2010, he tendered his resignation and decided to move back to Zimbabwe to work for Robert Mugabe.^[1] Maziwisa worked as Kasukuwere's advisor in the Ministry of Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment. He also took the opportunity to write critic articles under the banner of ZANU PF, attacking opposition movements such as the Movement for Democratic Change and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai. In no time, Maziwisa grew to become Tsvangirai's fiercest critic. Maziwisa ran a blog on newzimbabwe.com and was widely quoted in the print media and radio as a political commentator.

In February 2013, Maziwisa was head-hunted for a role in ZANU PF's Information Department. He was appointed Deputy Director of Information. Around the same time, he was also appointed to the Zimbabwe Mining Development Board.^[1] As the 2013 July 31 elections drew closer, Maziwisa made headlines when Coca Cola for disguising its 'Crazy for Good' initiative as a genuine marketing tool when in fact it was an attempt to promote the MDC-T. Maziwisa intensified his anti-MDC-T rhetoric in the period leading up to the July 31st elections describing Tsvangirai as a miserable loser who had created more babies than jobs.^[1]

Defending Zanu-PF's 2.2 Million Jobs

During a discussion hosted by the Young People in Politics on July 14, 2017, Maziwisa said that Zanu-PF did not pledge to create formal jobs.He also said that Zanu-PF had exceeded the 2.2 million jobs. Said Maziwisa:

Yes we promised that. But you see what people tend to forget and I want to say this on record and I hope this is the last time we are saying this as Zanu-PF. We did not say we were going to create 2.2 million formal jobs. We said we were going to create 2.2 million jobs, and when you define what a job is it includes casual jobs. So for example you can use the word job in the sentence as follows; I gave him a job to wash my clothes. And that sentence is grammatically correct. We have created millions of jobs in the informal sector...In fact we have exceeded the 2.2 million jobs, we are now at the last count including the formal jobs at over 3 million jobs.

Factionalism

Maziwisa with Robert Mugabe

During the factions era in ZANU PF from 2014, Maziwisa appeared to be one of the frontline supporters of Robert Mugabe. He was very vocal against an alleged faction perceived to be under the leadership of former vice president Joice Mujuru. For this reason among others, Maziwisa has come to be identified as one of the biggest bootlickers in the ZANU PF party.

Controversy

Some critics and opposition politics accused Maziwisa of being gay. One such critic Job Sikhala wrote on his facebook page that Psychology Maziwisa was involved in a homosexual affair with Pater Roebuck whilst he was staying with him in South Africa. Around 2014, Maziwisa took a step to join the United Family Interdenominational Church led by a famous cleric Emmanuel Makandiwa.

Arrest & Conviction on Corruption Charges

In January 2018 Psychology was arrested together with Oscar Pambuka over a Zesa deal. The pair was arrested for their involvement in a fraud that prejudiced ZESA of tens of thousands of dollars for public relations works through their company Fruitful Communications. Psychology Maziwisa And Oscar Pambuka Arrested

In November 2018, the two were convicted of the corruption charges and were sentenced to 6 years and 5 months each in jail.

Effectively however they would serve 2 years, 6 months each after the rest of the term was conditionally suspended.

Maziwisa was arrested at the High Court in January 2023 where he wanted to note yet another appeal.

He was then taken to Harare Magistrates Court where he appeared before magistrate Stanford Mambanje who formally committed him to prison.

Maziwisa started his effective 40-month prison term on 27 January 2023 after his appeal against conviction and sentence on two counts of fraud was struck off the appeal roll in September 2022.^[3]

Maziwisa was convicted along with former ZBC News anchor Oscar Pambuka of two counts of fraud.

Pambuka started serving his sentence a few days before Maziwisa was also committed to prison.

The two were found guilty of duping the Zimbabwe Power Company of US$12 650 for radio coverage provided for free by ZBC and trying, unsuccessfully, of getting another US$36 000.

The two were each jailed for a total of 78 months, 54 months on the first count with 12 months suspended on condition of good behaviour on release and another two months if they each paid ZPC back US$6 325.

The second count attracted a 24-month sentence, but this runs concurrently with the effective 40 months on the first count, so the total effective sentence is 40 months each.

References