Takesure Musiiwa
NATIONAL CHAIRPERSON
Takesure Musiiwa, the current ZimRights National Chairperson, is a seasoned human rights defender who served Zimbabwe’s human rights movement for over two decades.
His journey as a human rights defender goes as far back as 1992 with the Zimbabwe Association of Community Theatre (ZACT), where he used theatre for development as a tool for civic education and political tolerance. This formative work took him to the Netherlands in 1994 as part of a global youth exchange focused on international solidarity, and upon his return in 1995, he dedicated himself fully to community organising in the years that followed, when Zimbabwe experienced extensive politically volatile periods.
Over the last three decades, he has worked with and led multiple civic organisations that have shaped the national and regional human rights landscape. He held leadership roles within the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), ZimRights, and Amnesty International Zimbabwe, among others. At the NCA, he served from the district level to Provincial Chairperson for Mashonaland West (2000–2010), contributing to the national constitutional reform agenda.
At ZimRights, he rose from Mashonaland West Chairperson (2012–2015) to National Vice Chairperson (2015) and now serves as National Chairperson, leading Zimbabwe’s largest grassroots human rights movement.
At Amnesty International Zimbabwe, he served as National Treasurer (2009–2011) and later National Board Chairperson (2011–2015), where he spearheaded the national campaign for the abolition of the death penalty.
In all these roles, he has coordinated large-scale civic education programs, human rights campaigns, peacebuilding initiatives, and electoral support efforts. As Regional Coordinator for ZIMCET since 2006, he facilitated peace committees, community trainings, and conflict transformation work across Mashonaland West.
At the Zimbabwe Association of Community Theatre, he led the Theatre for Political Tolerance Project in 2001 during one of the most violent election periods in our country’s history.
Internationally, he has represented Zimbabwean civil society at the AU Summits since 2004, the SADC People’s Summit since 2005, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights since 2015. These platforms have shaped his perspective on the critical role of international solidarity in linking local struggles to international mechanisms for justice and accountability.
In recognition of his contribution, he was awarded the Personal Sacrifice Award by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition in 2010, an honour he held with humility and responsibility.
In his current role as the ZimRights National Chairperson, he has presided over the organisation’s turnaround programme, rejuvenated membership engagement and led the ZimRights National Council through one of the most difficult years.
