Inspired Individuals

Gabriel Shumba is the Executive Director of Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF). Mr Shumba is a human rights lawyer who holds a (LLB) UZ and a Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. He is also a Doctor of Laws Candidate, specializing on the International Criminal Court and its prospects for Africa.

Mr Shumba was abducted and brutally tortured by the Zimbabwe's security forces for representing an opposition Member of Parliament in 2003. Then, he had previously been arrested more than ten times by state security agents for his activism against police brutality and the rule of law in Zimbabwe.

Mr Shumba’s activism can be traced back to the University of Zimbabwe where he was suspended for two years in 1995 for protesting police brutality. In 1997 Mr Shumba was elected to become the Student Representative Council President. It was during this period that he mounted a one-man demonstration against the breakdown of the rule of law in the country. He was arrested and spent a week in custody. These arrests and in some instances torture did not daunt him, and culminated in his failure to graduate with fellow colleagues when he was detained for attempting to hand over a petition protesting lawlessness to President Robert Mugabe (UZ Chancellor) on his graduation day.

After his torture in 2003, Mr Shumba was subsequently charged with attempting to overthrow the government though unconstitutional means, but was acquitted. Mr Shumba gave his testimony of torture to the United States Congress in 2004. Following death threats, Mr Shumba was forced to flee Zimbabwe to SA where he set up the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum.

The repressive government of Robert Mugabe (ZANU-PF) in Zimbabwe has been oppressing the peoples of Zimbabwe for many years. However, this has escalated in the past 10-15 years with the establishment of the opposition party MDC. Political activists are regularly rounded up, tortured, and murdered- this includes elected MPs of the MDC. There is no respect for the rule of law or judicial system. The police and army are extensions of the ZANU-PF political machine. Those political activists that choose to stay in Zimbabwe face these persecutions daily, but many have fled to neighbouring South Africa and Botswana. It was estimated over 2 million Zimbabwean refugees live and work in South Africa. Only a small fraction of these are political asylum seekers, the remaining are economic migrant workers, seeking employment with the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy.

The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum documents, advocates and litigates on human rights abuses committed on Zimbabweans, but stresses representation for those who have been forced to flee into exile. ZEF also represents the rights of Zimbabwean asylum seekers and refugees from Zimbabwe. It's main focus is those in South Africa and Botswana.

ZEF has been in partnership with Rights & Democracy for many years, with the later financing and guiding human rights projects for ZEF. This includes the current groundbreaking, regional, web-based project that involves four organisations in the SADC region.

Gabriel has also travelled world wide for advocacy work and has been to the US where he addressed the US Congress (House Committee on International Relations),Copenhagen, London (House of Commons and Lords), Brussels (European Parliament), Geneva, among others.

Since 2003, Gabriel has also been working with Zimbabwean migrant communities in SA. He has been involved extensive advocacy articulating the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants from Zimbabwe and has become the point person representing civil society organisations to negotiate the Zimbabwe Documentation Project introduced in 2010 with the South African government. Gabriel has also been assisting migrant communities by sourcing donations for blankets, food and other material from Churches and the Rotary Club to assist especially women and children. He is also outspoken for fighting the scourge of xenophobia in SA.