Hosia Mviringi
Dr Alex Tawanda Magaisa, known through his social media moniker @Wamagaisa, succumbed to cardiac arrest at a UK hospital this morning June 5, 2022 around 1000hrs
Announcing the death on his microblogging Twitter handle, Hopewell Chin'ono revealed that Dr Magaisa suffered a cardiac arrest.
"Zimbabwean public intellectual Dr Alex Magaisa has died. He suffered a cardiac arrest this morning at Margate Hospital at 10 am," said Chin'ono.
One of the fiercest critics of the Zimbabwean government and advocate for economic sanctions on the country Dr Alex Tawanda Magaisa 46, stayed true to his calling as an advocate for foreign political machinations in Zimbabwe.
Magaisa, who at the time if his death was a law lecturer at Kent Law School at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, rose to fame between 2012-2013 when he served as Chief of Staff (Advisor) to the then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in the Government of National Unity (GNU). He had prior to that worked as member of the core team advising the Constitution Making process which led to 2013 Constitution which culminated in the 2013 harmonised election.
Magaisa has been living with hypertension for the past 10 years having tweeted about it in 2018. On September 21, 2018, in a Twitter thread in which he reminded about his medical dilemma, which, according to his own confession, made him feel as fallible and vulnerable as any other human being.
"For the past five years I have lived with a chronic illness, believing in the right thing. Yet for many, Magaisa is a great man. I’m not. It’s not in my hands. I fight like all else. The challenge of the heart has never stopped me fighting for the right thing. It was not a choice. But we have to do the right thing, always," he said then.
Magaisa then revealed that despite the bravado people sometimes display in public, they too hurt inside and have their own fears and insecurities.
"The words we say and the image that goes out there does not always reveal the persons behind, wangu (my man). When I see a person who has a chronic challenge, I understand. We did not choose to be there. Circumstances placed us there, but it doesn’t stop us trying to do the right thing."
Dr Magaisa, in that thread revealed that in 2013 he suffered one of the most scary episodes of hypertension and that it was the then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who had come to his rescue.
"When I wrote my earlier message, I realised a lot who follow me did not understand. For many, I am a strong & healthy chap. I’m not. I try hard but it’s not easy. 2013., when the situation was serious I spoke to Mdhara Morgan and got help. I’m a member of the suffering union," lamented Magaisa then.
Speaking to TateguruTv, Ms Esteri Magaisa, sister to Dr Magaisa confirmed that indeed the deceased had a history with hypertension.
Magaisa, who hails from Sadza area in the Chikomba District in Mashonaland East, leaves behind a wife and two children.
Burial arrangements will be made public in due course.
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