Profile: Linda Masarira

11 October 2022 

By Simbarashe Musaki

LINDA MASARIRA'S ‘movie’ like life tale, comprising of incarcerations, torture, and unpretentious abductions under the hands of former Zimbabwe President, the late Robert Mugabe’s regime may have been a hardener for the veteran human rights activist cum politician.

The experience inspired her to form her political party, Labour Economists and Afrikan Democrats (LEAD) in 2019, looking forward to taking head-on selfish political party leaders obstructing ordinary citizens from enjoying the ‘Zimbabwe of milk and honey’ imaginary promised by freedom fighters prior to independence.

Now 40 years old and a mother of five, she boasts of having lived 50 lives.

Linda is a politician with a difference and is herself a success story in Zimbabwean political and human rights activism history which was previously dominated by men.

“I inspired myself because no one can do what I am capable of doing. I have lived 50 lives in 40 years and I just aim higher for people to have standard and decent living conditions,” she said in an interview.

Her activism lifestyle coupled with the highest quality political concepts amaze many people who in turn raise countless questions about her childhood, trade unionism, and politicking account which this publication successfully traced its roots.

Born on October 3, 1982, at Hwange Colliery Hospital, Linda grew up ordinarily like other children and in a family of two. She is the eldest child of John Joseph Masarira a retired chartered surveyor and Perpetua Masarira the headmistress of Herman Gmeiner High School, while Russell her only sibling is a successful farmer in the Batswana land.

She attended primary education at Hallingbury Primary school (Harare) and enrolled for secondary education at Marlborough High School for forms 1 and 2, before moving to Chipindura High School (Bindura) to do her form 3 up to 5, and all this nomadism was as a result of her parents searching for greener pastures.

Despite being a rape victim at the age of 17 and later realizing that she was pregnant, Linda finished her form 6 at Christ Ministries College (Harare) staying alone.

Although activism was inborn and not a breeding area for empty vessels diametrically opposed to general belief then, Linda pursued tertiary education prior to entering the mainstream activism arena. She did courses including I.T and Networking, Computer Technicians, Institute of Marketing Management (IMM) and a Certified Railway Trains working course.

In 2002-3 she got employed at Gratephase Computers as a computer technician before trying her luck as an indigenous businesswoman, establishing her first company Lindaz Interiors at the same time being employed by Systems Technology as a sales administrator between 2003 and 2005 where she started trade unionism as the workers’ committee chairperson. 

She is a victim of the infamous Zuva judgment in 2015 after having worked for National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) from 2006 as a guard special (assistant train driver) and successfully led two workers’ unions that is Trainmen Workers Union (TWU) between 2008-2013 and NRZ workers’ committee between 2014 and 2015 in fighting against poor remuneration and late payment of salaries.

Regardless of being fired more than thrice for trade unionism, her late husband Charles Moyo remained her cheerleader and was the man behind Linda’s successful trade unionism career.

“I was fired three times in my life for labour activism and advocating for labour justice and decent salaries. I am a victim of the Zuva judgment and gender justice and after being fired at NRZ, I just made a promise to myself that I was not going to work for anyone again, that’s when I ventured into farming and started doing advocacy work,” said Masarira.

After being fired by NRZ, Linda did not lose hope of getting her terminal benefits and being a voice for the voiceless, she formed and chaired the Association of Railways Terminated Employees (ARTE) and managed to ensure that all Zuva judgment victims got their benefits.

Politically, her role model is former MDC women’s assembly chairperson Lucia Matibenga and her political career commenced in Hwange as an MDC activist before dumping the party in protest, accusing former MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai of betraying the people’s struggle by allegedly going into hiding in Botswana during the bloody 2008 elections.

In 2015-2017, Linda who is not a political Uncle Tom became the then Tendai Biti-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP) secretary for recruitment and mobilisation before quitting, citing the party leader’s shenanigans, hypocrisy and misogynistic nature as push factors.

Fed up with partisan politics, she launched her Harare Central independent campaign dubbed #PurpleCampaign in September 2017 before joining Thokozani Khupe led MDC-T as the national spokesperson after realising that the electorate was not yet ready for independent candidates and disclosed her expulsion in 2019 as a result of patriarchal dominance around the party leader.   

Focusing on human rights activism, joining hands with the likes of Promise Mkwananzi in 2016,  Linda is a founder member of Tajamuka/Sesijikile, a social movement that was a nightmare for the late former President Mugabe, advocating for Mugabe to step down on accusations of violating human rights and dictatorship.

Linda who got the nickname 'Chandagwinyira' from her parents was part of the 2016 Occupy Africa Unity Square Campaign which protested against the deteriorating socio-economic environment leading to her periodic arrests.

Following a series of fruitful protests, she spearheaded in 2016, Masarira was incarcerated for 89 days at Chikurubi Female Prison and carried her activism behind bars thwarting human rights abuse in prison and was transferred to solitary confinement at Chikurubi Maximum Prison.

“I’m glad that I led a protest in prison to change the living conditions of female prisoners at Chikurubi Female Prison, this led to my solitary confinement at Chikurubi Maximum Prison (male prison). They thought they were fixing me, but I managed to have an opportunity to turn around other the prisoner's livelihoods, which were subjected to inhumane treatment by prison guards,” she said.  

She is also a trustee, the first coordinator and brains behind the formation of Zimbabwe Women in Politics Alliance (ZWIPA) in 2016 whose major achievement was the ‘Bring back our women from Kuwait’ campaign which sped the repatriation process to more than 200 stranded Zimbabwean women who had fallen victims of human trafficking. She is also the founder and trustee of Zimbabwe Drug Action Team (ZiDAT) an organization advocating for public rehabilitation of all drug addicts in Zimbabwe and the classification of Chrystal Meth (Mutoriro) as an illegal and dangerous drug. She is also advocating for the alignment of laws to protect the girl child from early marriages, through a constitutional court challenge which is before the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe.

Masarira’s profile is admirable, as she is the convener of #PensionersVoiceZW, former coordinator for the Young African Leadership Forum (Zimbabwe Chapter), former chairperson of the Revolutionary Freedom Fighters as well as former chairperson of Star Fellowship cohort 3 and FES Alumni.

To date, she has set political standards rather than matching them by being the leader of the only political party in the world that has achieved gender parity from the national executive to the ward structures. 

In Zimbabwe, since independence her party is the only party that has got a diversity of leadership in its executive that is a cocktail of youth, middle-aged and elderly people, as well as leaders from diverse religious backgrounds.

In proving her power of turning everything she touches to gold, Linda successfully advocated for the reduction of examination fees in 2020 leading to the government subsiding ZIMSEC examination fees, engaged the RBZ governor for ordinary citizens to access US dollars at auction rate, advocated for the availability of fuel in RTGS to alleviate the hardships and strain for US dollars for all workers who earn local currency and successfully petitioned parliament not to consider the petition by civil society organizations which wanted to reduce the age to access sexual reproductive health to 12 years.

Earlier this year, she was elected the third Vice President of Convergence of Pan Afrikanists a Pan Afrikan organization advocating for the unification of Afrika and transformation of Africa to become a first world continent using it's own resources, intellectual capacity and human capital. She continues to break barriers and works tenaciously to advance the interests of Africa.

On the humanitarian aspect, Linda is running a sustaining project for teenage mothers disowned by families and a sanitary products donation program benefitting rural women and schools. She is also doing advocacy work for friends of Palestine and she recently wrote to the Arab League and UN to intervene and free Palestine from apartheid. 

George Files said, “Whoever stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80 years.” Linda subscribes to that view and is currently studying for a Bachelor of Arts, Honours Degree in Peace and Governance.

Despite unfair treatment from the majority of opposition political parties’ supporters on social media through shameful manufactured allegations coupled with mirages, meant to taint her political career and denigrate her social dignity, what Linda has achieved so far in her political journey is a success, in any language.