All Good Things Must Come to an End:
Farewell ZimRights
By Dzikamai Bere
“All good things come to an end…. ….so that others can begin.”
On 26 October 2025, my employer issued this statement, announcing that I will be stepping down from my current role of National Director for ZimRights with effect from 31 December 2025. The curtain comes down. It has been six years since I joined Zimbabwe’s first post-independence indigenous human rights advocacy movement.
What a journey! I absolutely loved this. I enjoyed every bit of it.
While the announcement was made only last month, this transition has been in motion for quite a while. As I close my chapter with ZimRights, I had the pleasure of travelling throughout the whole country to say farewell to the amazing communities of action that make ZimRights what it is. I also travelled across the world to bid farewell to our global partners. We shared fascinating stories from border to border and beyond.
The highlight was in Mashonaland West, when the Kariba Chapter decided to show off and hosted us on a sunset boat cruise. I was asked to co-facilitate a reflective session with our National Chairperson, and now Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Mr. Takesure Musiiwa. We reflected on many things. I paid my personal tribute to the Vice President and National Chair.
Six years ago, when I joined ZimRights, I was the unlikely candidate for that role. From day one, I was misfiring left, right, and center. It’s a big movement and I was just new. But the Chairperson became my champion. He understood my vision and ensured buy-in across the whole movement. We became a formidable team, each in his lane, but always conferring with each other to make sure we don’t lose sight of the big picture. He did what he knows best, and I did what I know best. In his reflections, he was kind. He said transitions were a way of life. “We are all leaders. Others lead first, and others come later. We must celebrate leadership transitions because they are opportunities for renewal.”
Thank you, Chairperson Musiiwa. Thank you, ZimRights.
I am grateful for the opportunity to lead ZimRights. It was a difficult time when I took over. Initially, I regretted taking up the invitation. In fact, I actually resigned on day one. But dialogue prevailed, and I returned to work with a new realization that leading in the civic space is just but a crown of thorns. It is a cross that we have to carry with love and commitment, knowing that we are on the right side of history. There is no assurance of victory. But we must do it still. As St. Ignatius of Loyola puts it, the reward is simply the knowledge and consolation that we are serving God. This became my daily prayer:
Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous;
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
To give and not count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil, and not to seek for rest;
To labour, and not to ask for reward
– Except to know that I am doing your will.
(St. Ignatius of Loyola)
Six years later, I look back, and I am glad I stayed. The journey was amazing. It was full of joy. The success of my tenure was not of my doing. It was the miracle of leadership accompaniment, the community of love that formed itself around me, to cover for my weaknesses, shield my shortcomings, and exaggerate my capabilities. Leadership can be a lonely journey, but I never walked alone. There were giants in the shadows who refused to be named or to be seen. But they were there, opening the path for me, unlocking doors, finding solutions, and holding my hand. To this day, they refuse to take the credit. I was a lucky man. I was blessed.
The ZimRights tribe made my work pleasurable. The chaos behind the order. The bus rides to outreaches and the retreats. They taught me an important leadership lesson. A strong team is every leader’s superpower. Year in, year out, we shattered the records and set the bar high. Thank you, ZimRights tribe.
In our transition conversations with staff and membership across the country, many have asked what I consider my most outstanding achievement at ZimRights. Was it donor reengagement? Was it the Shifting Power to the People Strategy? Was it youth engagement? Was it fundraising? The People’s Human Rights Manifesto? The Right to Peace Campaign? Well, everyone can have their pick, and it is all right. We experience leadership differently.
I inherited a movement that has a strong foundation. ZimRights’ greatest asset is its members —250,000 across the country —who are passionate about human rights. They are not afraid to stand up. This year, we added the diaspora chapter, the PWDs Council, and the Women’s Council. Just last week, we started fundraising for the human rights village, but what allows us to do that is the fact that we already have ZimRights House in Harare, which gives us a great start. The foundations are unshakeable.
The hard work has been done. What I believe to be my most outstanding achievement is renewing those foundations and reigniting the vision of ZimRights’ founders—to set ZimRights on a future-oriented, sustained, and sustainable growth trajectory. This may not be clear today, but it will become clearer in the years to come. We have created the software that will make growth, even in a new and hostile environment, inevitable for ZimRights. We have strengthened a leadership culture that cuts across the movement’s different pillars, and we will begin to see a movement that leads from unlikely sites, with a membership and a secretariat aligned to the same vision. What will make this software work is the solid foundation set by those who came before us.
And so you ask, what was my most significant achievement? It is nothing that you can see or touch. But it will become clear soon. That was my little contribution in the last six years. I am grateful to have had that opportunity to lead in a crisis, showing that renewal is good and that the risk is worth it.
I also asked staff and members to share their greatest concerns with me during the farewell engagements. Many felt that this was not the right time for ZimRights to go through a transition because of the shift in funding priorities for donors, as well as the shrinking space. I understand.
My message is that the future of ZimRights is bright. While these challenges may seem new to the world, ZimRights has already navigated such shifts and emerged on top of the game. This has strengthened the resilience of its membership, deepened community roots, and pushed us to innovate around sustainability. That is why this year, this time, ZimRights is in a better position than last year this time. With that in mind, organisations are better positioned to make successful transitions when they are in a season of strength, and ZimRights is in that season. This is the message in our Rising Still Annual Report that we launched earlier this year.
Beyond my confidence in ZimRights’s strength is my hope in the current and future leadership of ZimRights. They will be equal to the challenges of the future just as our predecessors were equal to the challenges of the past three decades. The future is bright.
And what must I say about my time at ZimRights as I check out?
Words fail me. Other than my marriage, ZimRights was the passionate love of my life. I gave it my all, to the last drop. If I had more, I would still give, and I will in many other forms. But for now, I must bow out, because my job is done. The hour has come for ZimRights to find another leader to take it to the next level. We must not be afraid of renewal. It is the miracle of humanity – this race that generation after generation – must renew itself to hold true to the hope of the future – knowing that in our time we did well. When our time to check out comes, a new generation will emerge to carry on the good work that we started.
As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, so that others can be born.
Thank you, ZimRights, for giving me the opportunity to lead.
Yours truly,
Dzikamai Bere
(Outgoing) National Director
