Biography
BIOGRAPHY
In the Eye of the Storm : A Biography of a renowned Zimbabwean Patriot, Humanitarian, Philanthropist, Political Activist, Human rights defender, Protest singer, Social scientist, Critical theorist, Media influencer, Social justice advocate, Freedom of expression advocate, Child abuse advocate, Women empowerment advocate, Workers rights advocate, Disability advocate, Motivational writer, Motivational speaker and Academic.
WHO IS VIOMAK
Viomak is a woman of valor , a prominent Zimbabwean Patriot, Humanitarian, Philanthropist, Political Activist, Human rights defender, Protest singer, Social scientist , Critical theorist, Media influencer, Social justice advocate, Freedom of expression advocate , Child abuse advocate, Women empowerment advocate, Workers rights advocate ,Disability advocate , Motivational writer , Motivational speaker and Academic. She was born and bred in Mutare, Manicaland , Zimbabwe then Rhodesia. In 2001 she derived her professional name from her first name and last name and is now passionately known as Viomak following years of building up an outstanding biography that has seen her evolve as the only female protest singer in Zimbabwe and a philanthropist of note.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
Viomak was a very young girl when Zimbabwe attained her independence from Rhodesia in 1980. Born to teacher parents Viomak’s first academic qualification and profession is also a teacher. She was born in a family of four, two boys and two girls. She attended her primary and secondary school in Manicaland. Her hardworking mother took great care of the whole family and they had a reasonably plentiful life. Viomak grew up in a Christian background family and she speaks of herself and her father as not interested in going to church but following Christian values from home and other informal settings. Her mother was a staunch Christian blessed with an empathetic heart and giving hands, a soft spoken and caring community pacesetter who gave endlessly to those in need and prayed unceasingly. Her mother’s father was a Reverend at St Andrews Methodist church .He was a community leader, a staunch Christian and a missionary who spent days on end on his feet travelling and preaching the word of God in Melsetter and Mutambara areas. He was happily married to a very loving Christian woman and the family was well known in the community for being there for the needy, helping orphans, providing shelter to the homeless and at one time the family looked after Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa who went on to form a political party United African National Council (UANC) and later served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979. Having grown up in a Christian family of compassionate elders, Viomak naturally inherited the kindness and learnt to have compassion for the needy and love for community from a tender age. Her parents were UANC supporters and never supported or voted for any other political party in Zimbabwe. Her father would spend days on end despising ZanuPF and always wished Rhodesia would come back. This is what Viomak grew up seeing and hearing, helping the needy and despising bad leadership.
LIFE AT SCHOOL
At primary school Viomak was an academically gifted bright girl who was always in the top 5 of the class from grade 1 to 7. She was a shy, but confident and helpful girl who shared the little she had with her friends and those around her, and would always support other students with their school work. During a letter writing exercise she remembers giving a struggling student her letter to copy and the student copied Viomak’s signature name. As the teacher was doing rounds he spotted that both students had the same signature and the other student was asked to write his own letter. Viomak would always volunteer to help teachers with various classroom tasks and was a group leader a role she liked. She was very good in Mathematics, Geography, and English and Shona language and was awarded with many book prizes in the best students overall category and in the best students subjects category. She remembers being awarded her first book prize, ‘Mpezeni Ngoni Chief’ when she was 10 years old. She finished reading the book in one day .Viomak was a book worm, fluent reader and gifted writer and at 11years she read her first novel Garandichauya by Patrick Chakaipa and subsequently frequented the school library where she collected more Shona novels for reading. Her collection included novels such as Kusasana Kunoparira , Maidei , Kutonhodzwa kwaChauuka, Makunun’unu maodzamwoyo , Ndakaitei , Uchandifungawo, Ziva kwavakabva and Gehena harina moto .She remembers being nominated by the teachers and the school headmaster to read some Bible verses during the morning assembly for the whole school and later joining the school choir for the morning assembly song. She was in the school choir which comprised of about twelve students and her main part was alto. The school choir came out first in many singing competitions that they participated in. Viomak recalls the choir participating in a tightly contested competition in Gweru and coming out second. Since that time she developed a liking for choral music which has influenced to a very large extent her genre of protest music. Her Christian parents sang in the school choir as well as the church choir. She was a talented dancer and would perform traditional dances during prize giving days. She won dancing competitions when she was in primary school and remembers dancing in a Lever Brothers competition and winning toiletries and washing powder. She was very good in domestic sciences at school, loved sewing and nutrition and learnt baking cakes from domestic science lessons and also from her mother who was very talented in cake baking. She loved sports as well and played netball as a second shooter. After passing her Grade 7 with an A (1) in mathematics she proceeded to boarding High school for her Ordinary (O) and Advanced (A) levels. At secondary school she attended scripture union and played table tennis and excelled in her studies. After six years in secondary school she proceeded to the University of Zimbabwe.
CAREER
After attaining her first university teaching degree Viomak worked as a civil servant and taught full-time geography and shona from form 1 to form 6 in Zimbabwe for a brief stint. She also lectured part-time in geography, shona, sociology, psychology and philosophy in tertiary colleges and other settings. She left teaching and joined the publishing industry as a senior editor for school text books and literature books in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. The role also involved recording and producing drama performance sessions for a weekly programme which aired on radio 4. She left the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education after the department folded. She spread her wings and diverted into self –employment in the publishing industry opening a company and managing a book selling company supplying text books, literature books and stationery in schools and colleges. Having run a successful business book venture and participating in anti-government (ZanuPF) protests in support of workers’ rights she fled Zimbabwe in 2001 for greener pastures and to further her studies as the environment had become unsafe for her as well following her activism against ZanuPF. She is currently a public health official working with vulnerable people in communities suffering from social deprivation.
THE COURAGEOUS VOICE OF REASON
Viomak is a patriotic pioneer who set the political activism narrative for Zimbabwe’s struggle against ZanuPF and bad leadership using her voice and music as a name and shame weapon for voicing her concerns. She is a passionate and strong proponent of social justice who spends much of her time voicing the concerns of voiceless Zimbabweans. Since 2001 she has been demanding justice and advocating for the needs of Zimbabweans and assisting in finding solutions to alleviate suffering and hopelessness amongst Zimbabweans.
She also courageously set the pace for a better Zimbabwe using social media when everyone else was afraid to speak out publicly against ZanuPF and to denounce the political party for destroying Zimbabwe and for perpetrating the torture and murder of opposing voices. Even though Viomak popularised herself before Facebook, she is a Facebook icon who has been using the platform for her activism since its inception and from 2009 Viomak has had a huge following on the platform and has inspired many Zimbabweans to speak out and take action. She is admired for her unmatched courage, determination, dedication, sincerity, sense of justice, hard work and outstanding philanthropy. Viomak is not only well known for her admirable philanthropy but is also well known for her strong views on Zimbabwe politics, which she denounces as sewage politics. She is Zimbabwe’s multi-gifted ,non –aligned, independent and fearless voice of the voiceless, a straight talker, great listener and helper who gives hope to the hopeless needy in different settings and in different ways while also fighting for the rights of the abused and the downtrodden.
Viomak is a modern day liberation veteran well known for producing liberation songs and a competent heroine of the struggle for a better Zimbabwe who single handedly brought ZanuPF and Mugabe’s human rights abuses to the international world through astonishing activism never to have been seen in modern day Zimbabwe. Being such a great force to reckon with, her resilience and fighting spirit motivated ZanuPF to award her and her family members death threats. Due to her unique bravery, rare qualities and BIG heart many Zimbabweans approach her for help, advice and guidance. Her inborn counselling expertise and skills are very much appreciated and deemed to be very honest, empathetic and helpful by many who approach her for help for reasons ranging from struggles with psychological issues such as depression, grief and anxiety to managing complex situations. Her admirers view her as a pot of wisdom, intelligence, love, kindness and understanding and a role model who is always there for the needy and always giving an ear to those who approach her for help.
THE BIRTH OF VIOMAK PROTEST MUSIC
Viomak continued her political activism away from home. In May 2005 she started recording political gospel protest music for divine intervention and for social and political justice to prevail in Zimbabwe. This was the beginning of her protest music career which she says was inspired by an inner voice. She believes this was God’s calling to use her voice to despise human rights abuses, bad governance and corruption in Zimbabwe and her heart to help the needy being ravaged by disease, poverty, untold suffering and many other forms of abuse. From then on she releases a protest music album every year to sarcastically mark Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s birthday on 21 February since 2006.
The first song that crossed her mind is from a popular song ‘Mutsamba mune zita risimo’. She sang the song at church during Sunday school during her childhood. She penned protest lyrics from the tune and called the song ‘Zimbabwe iripi (Where is Zimbabwe) ’. After Zimbabwe iripi she wrote the song ‘Ndofamba nediaspora’ (Journey to Diaspora) the tune of which she derived from a popular Methodist church song called ‘Ndofamba ndofamba’. She remembers playing the two songs to her fearful mother over the phone and her mother advising her not to produce such kind of music fearing ZanuPF terrorists will abduct torture and murder the family back home. She recorded the two songs as well as acapellas of the songs at two different studios in Canada and sold the CD’s for $5.00 each.
Viomak made a commitment to donate 50% of the proceeds to charity. She sang six more songs to make them eight and this was the birth of her first music album Happy 82nd Birthday President R.G Mugabe (Emotions of the emotionless : Diaspora Classics 1) released on 21 February 2006. Viomak remembers recording some of the music in a flat in Canada where the producer originally from Uganda helped her to record the music. The producer who was a university student suggested that she gets a website designed for her music and charity work. In 2005 she had her website designed by a Tanzanian man who was referred to her by the producer .She then had sleeves of the music albums designed by another man in Canada. Viomak sacrifices her work salary to embark on the project and continues to do so with no public funding. She would advertise her music in the Zimbabwe Standard print newspaper and she would promote her music on MySpace, YouTube, facebook, sound cloud and at various events and functions displayed on tables.
Viomak never looked back and since 2001 she continues to protest against ZanuPF bad governance and corruption in Zimbabwe in various ways and using music as a foundation of her activism and a campaigning tool, as a source of making a difference in the lives of the needy and suffering through her personal donations to various charity causes. Viomak writes her own songs which are a mastery of creativity and she sings alone and adds the backing vocals to her music with a passion from the bottom of her heart that is felt by anyone who listens to her music. She is a multi-tasked versatile singer who changes parts accordingly, producing the kind of warm punchy protest music that revokes emotions and unravels truth which she is well known for.
THE BIRTH OF VIOMAK CHARITY WORK
Three years down the journey, in 2004 Viomak visited Zimbabwe from abroad and saw first-hand the unending chaos and suffering of her fellow Zimbabweans and the continued destruction of Zimbabwe by Mugabe and ZanuPF. The painful scenes reminded her of being a very young girl in Rhodesia and her memories during that time are of a well-run and well governed country under a white government. As her heart yearned and searched for good leadership and humanity, Viomak remembers that her parents never liked ZanuPF and she doesn’t remember seeing the populace suffering poverty and unemployment. She doesn’t remember seeing the then Prime minister of Rhodesia Ian Douglas Smith but vividly remembers that Rhodesia was a land of milk and honey under white rule. The visit motivated and inspired Viomak to fight for the abused and suffering in a manner that would help her raise funds for them while highlighting the abuses. While in Zimbabwe she remembers going to a certain white man who was running a home based internet business in Avondale, Harare to provide internet access to Zimbabweans charging a very small fee for them to remain in touch with the world as a way of evading ZanuPF censorship. The man connected the Mango internet on her laptop and Viomak would access the New Zimbabwe forum from Zimbabwe to keep up with the vibrant political discussions and demanding good leadership and assistance for the needy.
After four months she returned to the Diaspora carrying a heavy load of pain because of the suffering and hopelessness she had seen. She was deeply troubled day and night. An inner voice and powerful conviction inspired her to do something about the situation and sorrowful touching songs and a mission emerged in her head. She called the songs protest music and the mission Viomak Charity music. She came up with her own wise words “You give not because you have more than enough but because someone doesn’t have enough” to honour and inspire her work. From there on she never looked back and in 2005 she started making constant donations to various vulnerable adults and children in need, especially the sick and the physically challenged, orphanages and homes and supporting with paying school fees and sourcing shelter , clothing and food. She also helps sexually abused children and their families to seek justice. Viomak concerns herself with the suffering of others and is always finding ways of assisting the needy in an effort to enhance social functioning, collective responsibility and overall well being of everyone. Through this charity work she has become a household name in Zimbabwe as a community champion and a great inspiration in the charity fraternity. Many Zimbabweans who need help in various ways approach Viomak who helps them for free sacrificing her own limited resources and declares that there is no possession that is greater than the love you give to the needy.
ZIMBABWE HEROINE
Viomak is the only woman who sings her type of hard hitting protest music in Zimbabwe while the other few protest singers are men. The few men sing for Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), an opposition political party, with some of them being funded to sing for the opposition. This means the singers get support and protection from MDC and hide in the wings of their party while getting paid to sing songs that despise ZanuPF in the gist of promoting their party. No other Zimbabwean woman sings protest music and the few women sings choose to focus on gospel music. The impact of her music is felt from a feminine point of view as well which is very important for women empowerment and advancement. Viomak remains an independent voice of the voiceless and a true Zimbabwe patriot in all her work. She despises both ZanuPF and MDC and all bad leadership and corruption by all individuals and organisations in Zimbabwe. In light of this integrity she has garnered haters from both ZanuPF and MDC.
Viomak has managed to break a record by fearlessly standing up on her own to fight for human rights, and speak on behalf of the many Zimbabweans who are too afraid to speak against the political status quo and all other corruption activities by citizens. She brought Zimbabwe politics and socio-political activism to social media, on facebook when everyone else was afraid of despising ZanuPF even on the internet. Her courage and work inspires many Zimbabwean women as well who are looked down upon in our society and struggle for equality in its many forms. Her activism empowers them with voices and creativity to speak out against feminine oppression and fight for the rights of women and children in various ways while financially supporting their causes and needs. Viomak is convinced that life in Rhodesia under Ian Douglas Smith, white rule was far much better than life in Zimbabwe today under black rule and she yearns for white rule. She is one of the most meaningful, focused and courageous musicians of today’s Zimbabwe. She is also the first and only Zimbabwean musician to solely sing for charity apart from being the only Zimbabwean woman protest musician. Her music will definitely leave a mark in the history of Zimbabwe’s music and political industry. One of her long-time fans, Josiah Taundi has assured her that, “The message and courage is what is more than the sales. Sales can jump anytime, sometimes not in the now especially for this your kind of project, trust me.”
THE UNWAVERING COURAGE TO SPEAK OUT
Even though her music is censored and banned, Viomak’s voice is not censored. Viomak never runs out of ideas and she is very versatile, action packed and knows and understands what her activist role involves. She approaches the social issues and the politics of Zimbabwe heads on and hands on. To note is that she is not afraid of demanding what is right from Zimbabweans , for Zimbabweans , from Zimbabwe politicians and those associated with them thus her activism knows no boundaries. What she feels is right is what she does and says. In 2009 she was disturbed by news that white farm grabber Dr Arikana Chihombori, a US citizen who has lived in America for 30 years was in the middle of illegally seizing the Cremer’s farm in Chegutu. Viomak phoned Dr Arikana Chihombori in a desperate effort to stop the illegal seizure. Viomak strongly believes that white farmers are much more competent than black farmers. She has in many instances campaigned that farms be given back to white farmers as they utilise the farming land for the benefit of the nation and also boost the economy, while black farmers are not competent in commercial farming.
In 2011 Viomak made headlines when she challenged the ZanuPF Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Walter Mzembi on his facebook wall and reminded him that he supports a party of thieves and murderers. Prior to that on 24 December 2010 she phoned in to Zimonline radio station, run by a ZanuPF state agent Simbarashe Patrick Nyanhanga masquerading as a radio Dj. Simbarashe was hosting a phone in radio show promoting notorious ZanuPF terrorist Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and National Housing Saviour Kasukuwere and portraying him as a good leader. This annoyed Viomak who phoned in to the programme as a contributor and shocked the minister notorious for masterminding the abduction, torture and murder of opposing voices when she reminded him that he supports a party of thieves and murderers. She kept on phoning in until the show was ended prematurely .Viomak has also challenged the then ZanuPF minister of Information and Publicity, Jonathan Moyo the author of the draconian laws POSA and AIPPA for drafting the laws that impede freedom of speech. In responding to Viomak , Jonathan Moyo failed to justify how the draconian laws are good for Zimbabwe. In 2020 Viomak challenged the ZanuPF Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Paul Mavima for corruption after his Green Valley house in Gokwe was raided and 28 tonnes of silo mealie meal and 10 tonnes of rice meant for needy rural people were recovered. Irked by the abusive and intolerant behaviour of MDC-T supporters who were terrorising her for despising their party, Viomak challenged the MDC-T Member of Parliament, Jessie Majome to stop their hooligans and reminded her that the leaders are responsible for the rowdy behaviour of their supporters. The unstoppable Viomak did not forget to challenge ZanuPF Constantino Chiwenga currently Zimbabwe’s vice president and former army general on the phone, reminding him that their party destroyed Zimbabwe and continues to perpetrate violence on citizens. Constantino Chiwenga demanded that Viomak stop writing him.
VOICE OF THE VOICELESS
Viomak’s vigorous support of human rights, freedom and social justice has earned her a lot of respect amongst those who dream of a Zimbabwe free from oppression, human right abuses, corruption and poverty. Her music and activism is improper in as far as ZanuPF draconian laws Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) are concerned. However, these laws have not stopped her from pursuing her just cause and to demand justice for all opposing voices being kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Mugabe and ZanuPF. Undeterred she continues to record protest music and continues to pursue anti Zanupf campaigns online using the internet as a vehicle for socio-political change.
Her music plays a brilliant contribution to human rights education and generates an international grass roots movement for human rights across borders. Viomak is an advocate for and proponent of human rights , a musical pioneer who has developed a music genre that specifically deals with human rights and philanthropy , raising the kind of social and political conscience image and awareness , which is relevant to the Zimbabwean situation to this day. Her music targets the denial of human and civil rights and the emotional and physical abuses perpetrated by ZanuPF and Mugabe on citizens alongside his right hand men Emmerson Mnangagwa, Bigboy Samson Chikerema nicknamed Perrance Shiri, Paradzai Zimondi, Constantino Guveya Chiwenga, Augustine Chihuri and Gideon Gono, the men who mastermind the abduction, torture and murder of opposing voices. Viomak’s work immensely contributes in song and through hands on activism to social and political change in a way that chronicles all the abuses by Zimbabwe’s black regime of terrorists and thieves since independence.
Her popular song ‘Uchaenda riini Mugabe’ (When are you going) for instance, instigates the need for Mugabe and ZanuPF to exit power raising awareness that Mugabe is abusing the constitution whilst clinging onto power illegally typical of black presidents in Africa. Her songs are popular at drinking places in Zimbabwe where revelers openly sing along to the banned tunes. No other music in Zimbabwe has so forcefully shown what it is like to live in a dictatorial country where human rights are denied or disapproved by the government. The lives of the suffering others remains a cornerstone of her music that yearns for what Zimbabweans have lacked since independence. Like other known protest artists Viomak is enough proof that human beings can not only withstand evil, but can also find courage in crisis, and hope in the most hopeless of situations. Her motivating music and work give Zimbabweans the strength to find wisdom and grace during these challenging times where many Zimbabweans are regretting the leadership by black people and wishing the independence had not come. Viomak will end her Happy Birthday president Mugabe protest music albums upon his death with the album Happy Deathday President R.G .Mugabe (Death is certain). She vows to pursue protest music against ZanuPF leadership as long as they are leading Zimbabwe and she will remain an independent activist against bad leadership in Zimbabwe as long as it takes.
PETITIONS
Viomak is a campaigner of note who has on many occasions single handedly campaigned against Zimbabwe corruption, human rights abuses and many other socio-political ills since 2001.Notable campaigns involve various individuals and organisations .In May 2007 Viomak petitioned the Australia government through the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Alexander Downer to deport back to Zimbabwe ZanuPF state agent Reason Wafawarowa regarding serious criminal activities under ZanuPF. Wafawarowa was named and shamed for perpetrating crimes against humanity and, torture towards opposing voices before he sneaked into Australia. Wafawarowa who is also a columnist for the state newspaper, the Herald writes articles bashing white led governments and promoting ZanuPF toxic propaganda while enjoying the liberties in Australia. In 2009, Viomak spearheaded an anti-corruption campaign demanding that all MDC leaders in the Government of National Unit (GNU) with ZanuPF declare their personal assets in a bid to hold Zimbabwe leaders accountable and be different from thieving Zanupf leaders. The petition fell on deaf ears as MDC leaders also started to loot Zimbabwe public resources. In 2011 Viomak wrote a letter of protest to Concordia College, Minessota USA protesting against a women abuser, an abusive student ambassador Howard Mukanda (Howie) for provoking, harrassing and terrorising her. The student appeared before a disciplinary board. In 2018, Viomak wrote a letter to Harriet Baldwin, Britain’s minister of State for Africa denouncing her visit to Zimbabwe to legitimise ZanuPF Emmerson Mnangagwa presidency. In 2019 Viomak wrote a letter to the University of Havard in USA protesting against the Honorary Ambassador of Harvard Global Health Catalyst award that the department awarded to Zimbabwe’s first Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa. Viomak demanded that they withdraw the award as Auxillia didn’t deserve the award which was later revoked within a few days after the protest.
SUPPORT FOR JOURNALISTS
Viomak is on the fore front of despising Zimbabwe media many of who engage in journalism of personalities using their platforms to settle personal vendettas while masquerading as journalists. The sad scenario of the Zimbabwe media fraternity is such that the reckless and irresponsible so called journalists deliberately publish unsubstantiated claims as investigated news leading to deliberate fake news. Many of them are not trained professional journalists but are just people who decided to have online news sites as a way of generating funds from adverts .Thus a lot of their stories are half baked , biased , irresponsible and hate filled written to deform and not to inform . They spread deliberate lies just to lure visitors to their websites and there is no independent news reporting as all of them are aligned to organizations, individuals and to political parties and they have become mouth pieces of political parties. Anyone who despises their irresponsible, partisan journalism, political parties or their associates will get negative reporting, no reporting or fake news published about them. Bribery is also very common amongst the journalists whereby they are either paid to write positive stories about organizations or individuals to promote their agendas or are bribed to write negative stories to pursue and fulfill personal scores. As she mourns the unethical journalism for both print and online media bedeviling the profession amongst Zimbabweans she says media has a huge role to play in shaping and developing societies. Ethical and progressive journalism develops nations and it is not only the economy that develops nations. Yet our journalists have no integrity at all and don’t understand the damage they are causing to society including damaging their own children. Disturbed by this dearth of professional journalism and a vibrant independent and professional media fraternity, Viomak supports many aspiring journalists with mentoring and also provides media platforms for them to practice professional journalism. She also supports journalists whose work and lives are at risk with free and safe online news publishing platforms where they pursue their careers and their right to publish news away from ZanuPF.
When the Parliament of Zimbabwe on 31January 2002 passed as law the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), and signed by President Robert Mugabe on 15 March 2002 to legally silence independent voices , Viomak was quick to assist affected journalists and set up online news platforms for them to evade government censorship . AIPPA was used by ZanuPF as a weapon to suffocate independent media reporting in Zimbabwe. The draconian law crafted by the ZanuPF Minister of State for Publicity and Information in the President’s Office, Professor Jonathan Moyo, left a trail of destruction, arrests, intimidation, and harassment as freedom of speech was put to rest. The law led to the burning and closure on 12 September 2003, of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday, and this was one of AIPPA’s severest blows against press freedom in Zimbabwe. Viomak donated Zimbabwe Reporter, a brand new online news platform to Gift Phiri, a journalist for the Daily news which she paid for. Phiri published stories on his new site under a pseudonym to evade ZanuPF censorship. Viomak also donated Zimbabwe News Intelligence a brand new online news platform to former Zimbabwe Independent newspaper journalist Itai Mushekwe before she supported him to stand alone and pay for his own news site which Viomak helped him to develop. The two online news platforms and many other online news sites that Viomak donated were used effectively to evade censorship by both journalists who are on an official government death list and others who feared for their lives and published news deemed inappropriate by ZanuPF on the donated websites under various pseudonyms. Her good heart and quest for justice has no boundaries as all she clamours for is the best Zimbabwe for everyone. She has stood up for Ndebeles and helped journalist Zenzele Ndebele to market his Gukurahundi short film which was banned in Zimbabwe. Realising that Zenzele could not speak out in Zimbabwe about his concerns Viomak asked him to send by DHL the DVD to Viomak , from Zimbabwe , the cost of which Viomak paid for. To evade arrest and detection Viomak advised Zenzele to encrypt the words My Wedding on the DVD and on receiving the DVD, Viomak published the gukurahundi film on her website and other internet platforms and through this free rigours marketing, the film reached Zimbabweans and the rest of the world. Viomak has helped some H-Metro journalists publishing news in their own right with ecocash money transfers to buy internet data and pay for transport as they go on their independent errands to gather news for their work. These are journalists who approach Viomak for help knowing that Viomak hates suffering and thus will make the sacrifice to help them.
A VICTIM OF ZANUPF SPIES
Viomak’s work has left a remarkable trail of inspirational lessons and achievements in the struggle for a better Zimbabwe but not without leaving a trail of disgruntled ZanuPF supporters and spies who are baying for her downfall and her blood. Ever since she started her activism, a lot of ZanuPF affiliated spies and thugs notably in Zimbabwe, South Africa and in the United Kingdom have been terrorizing and tormenting Viomak. The spies assigned to track her movements are being paid for the job and they are to report to their superiors and counterparts in Zimbabwe any information that can link Viomak to her family members in Zimbabwe. The state agents sanctioned by their ZanuPF superiors in Zimbabwe will then torture or kidnap her family so that she comes out of her hiding hole. Some of such ZanuPF supporters paid by ZanuPF to spy on Viomak and her family were investigated and identified by media as a nurse Barbara Nyagomo –Chakabva aka Barbara Nyagomo –Mambo, a social worker Cynthia Mafuwa aka Cynthia Machare whose family are notorious ZanuPF agents in Zimbabwe holding high posts in government, Perseverance Percy Handy Leon Mapira , a notorious ZanuPF terrorist in Scotland and Jordan Khumalo who is also Barbara Nyagomo’s right hand man paid to spy on Viomak .Barbara who also works in cahoots with ZanuPF UK chairman Ndabaningi Nick Mangwana, at one point sent Viomak an email saying she had found more information about Viomak and she was sending the information to the state agents in Zimbabwe. She copied the email to Jordan Khumalo and her close ally Masimba Musodza also based in the UK as they masterminded their spying on Viomak.
As the plot to destroy Viomak and tarnish her image thickened, a Benjamin Mutsimba based in South Africa, one of the men who was at one point hired by Barbara to spy on Viomak and smear campaign her and refused to do the dirty job opened up to Viomak. Benjamin confided in Viomak and informed her that Barbara was paying spies in South Africa to track Viomak’s movements and to write malicious and fake publications about her and post on social media and the internet. Benjamini said he is one of the men who were assigned by Barbara to spy on Viomak and smear campaign her but he felt guilty and refused to smear campaign Viomak because he did not see anything wrong that Viomak had done to deserve such evilness. Benjamin fell out with Barbara for refusing to oblige to her request. Viomak reported Barbara who was studying for a social work degree to her university and she was withdrawn from the course by the head of department. A Utrecht, Netherlands based ZanuPF sponsored spy Stephen Matenga who spent years tormenting and terrorising Viomak and even spying on her Canada immigration status also confessed to Viomak for spying on her and apologised to her for emotionally abusing her.
Many other sponsored ZanuPF spies just to name a few of them , Cliff Gwarada, Naison Taurwi Gwarada, Cecilia Kadzamira, Patience Kunyaki, Wadzanayi Maresa, David Mutuku, Portia Saurombe , Yvonne Tendai Marembo and Carol Mutukwa do terrorise Viomak in an effort to silence her but she never stops despising ZanuPF. Many of them such as Violet Mwedzi Makamure use fake names on facebook to terrorise her and to spy on her. Some of them who operate from Zimbabwe and South Africa include Qubekani Ndlovu, Charlton Tsodzo,and Khumbulani Patrick Madzibanzira .
A VICTIM OF SMEAR CAMPAIGNS
Viomak has unraveled many feathers amongst Zimbabweans and the world over , not only through her protest music and socio-political activism but also through dedicated years of naming and shaming intolerant political thugs , ZanuPF spies , ZanuPF state agents (CIOs) , donor funds abusers , workers’ rights abusers , women abusers ,con –artists and corrupt Zimbabweans from grassroots level to top leadership. She also supports campaigns by others to despise bad leadership in government, opposition parties, and non – governmental organisations and amongst citizens. Those named and shamed and despised have made many desperate efforts and attempts to silence the outspoken activist with some resorting to smear campaigns. After being shamed for spying on Viomak with his colleague Barbara Nyagomo, a Masimba Musodza made desperate efforts to tarnish Viomak’s name and he wrote a malicious lies article about Viomak . He sent the article to his colleague Lance Guma in UK, who is editor and owner of a Zimbabwean online news website, Nehanda Radio. Guma who is a mouthpiece of opposition party , MDC-T , which Viomak despises and whose wife was named and shamed by Viomak for defending donor funds abusers notably Betty Makoni, published the malicious article. This was a personal vendetta to protect Betty Makoni’s image as she appeared on a programme on Nehanda Radio news and a vendetta to revenge on Guma’s wife who was shamed by Viomak . The desperate attempt by Musodza and Guma to smear campaign and tarnish her image did not deter Viomak who continues to despise all Zimbabwe political parties, donor funds abusers , conartists and hate filled bully journalists such as Lance Guma and Simbarashe Chikanza who publish fake news to settle personal vendettas while masquerading as journalists .
Viomak remains a voice of reason, a voice of the voiceless who has gained admiration and support from many Zimbabweans. Many support and admire her unwavering resilience in speaking truth, her courage to name and shame perpetrators of political violence, her persistence in demanding what is right for Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans, her resilience in defending freedom of expression and opinion and her refusal to be bullied and intimidated into silence.
A VICTIM OF FAKE NEWS
For demanding good leadership for Zimbabwe, Viomak experiences abuse and threats from both the ruling party ZanuPF and opposition party MDC –T supporters. The intolerant bootlickers don’t understand that Zimbabwe comes first no matter our political affiliations and the problem is worse because media that is supposed to be independent bootlicks political parties and individuals. For Viomak the freedom for a better Zimbabwe will definitely not come on a silver platter. She struggles day and night with dealing with hateful rowdy elements in the Zimbabwean society who want her to stop despising and denouncing their political parties.
Viomak is not a ZanuPF state agent, supporter or a cyber bully as published by proponents of fake news, smear campaign and malicious liars who hate her for exposing and naming and shaming in words and in songs the political and social ills ravaging Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans. Viomak is a victim of fake news because of her naming and shaming which has no boundaries and has seen her also shaming MDC-T leaders for corruption, thieving and political intolerance as together with their supporters they are also engaging in political violence like ZanuPF leaders and supporters. Some notable MDC-T supporters and mouthpieces are not amused at all and are taking all necessary measures to silence the outspoken activist. Her enemies and haters who are irked by her activism are losing sleep over her and strive day and night to find ways to silence her voice and stop her admirers from supporting her. Their desperation has led some of them to publish fake news about her. Notable names come to mind. Fake news proponent Nehanda Radio online news site owner and editor, Zimbabwean Lance Guma desperate to destroy Viomak published fake news saying Viomak is satan’s angel. The heartless fake news editor, publisher and MDC-T supporter who is notorious for abusing Viomak whenever he gets an opportunity to do so cooked deliberate lies that Viomak lied about one woman in Zimbabwe, Tafadzwa Mushunje claiming that the woman Tafadzwa had injected her step son with her HIV positive blood. Lance went on to compile a video using Viomak’s images which he used without her consent before Viomak demanded that he takes down her images of which he did. He uploaded the video on his website encrypted with the words Viomak is satan’s angel. Viomak does not even know who Tafadzwa Mushunje is and never made such claims about the woman she does not even know. Her crime against Lance Guma is despising MDC-T a party he supports and for despising his wife for defending Zimbabwe donor funds abusers notably Girl Child Network (GCN) executive director Betty Hazviperi Makoni who is a close ally of this family. Through her Anti-corruption activism Viomak is well known for adding her voice to despise donor funds abuse by Zimbabwe Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) leaders as well as individuals.
Viomak is also a victim of fake news published by GCN Betty Makoni on her blog as the shamed organization’s director struggled to sweep donor funds abuse by the organization and her under the carpet. As she stood in for workers’ rights to be respected, Viomak was instrumental in supporting former GCN employees who approached her for help and needed a strong voice to support them in voicing the donor funds abuse and workers abuse at the organization, against their executive director Betty Makoni. Through her Anti-corruption campaign Viomak challenged and helped to despise the workers abuse which involved deliberate non-payment of employees’ wages as donor funds were diverted by the director to build the executive director’s mansion in Marlborough Harare, Zimbabwe. Viomak also despised the donor funds abuse as noted in a letter to Betty Makoni by a former GCN donor Oxfam Novib highlighting why the funder was withdrawing funding from the organization following “Unsatisfied Financial Performance and External Evaluations of GCN” in a letter dated 23 September 2009. Concerns were raised by Oxfam Novib following mismanagement of finances and lack of verification of expenditures by GCN. Following GCN investigation of financial irregularities by Oxfam Novib and fearing prosecution Betty Makoni sneaked out of Zimbabwe in a huff and reappeared in Botswana where the former workers claimed that the GCN boss also bought a personal house abusing donor funds meant for sexually abused girls’ empowerment villages the reason why the funding was donated to the organization. After a short while in Botswana the GCN boss sneaked into Britain leaving the workers unpaid and the desperate girls with no empowerment village as promised. While in Britain the disgraced GCN boss claimed that her life was under threat from ZanuPF such that she had to leave Zimbabwe which is not true. She appeared in various Zimbabwe print media such as The Financial Gazette and online news platforms shaming her for running away with donor funds meant for sexually abused girls.
Following the name and shame and the Oxfam Novib expose, international donor agencies that were funding GCN immediately ceased their funding. The unpaid employees approached the labour court in Zimbabwe for redress. In April 2010 a former programme officer with GCN won a labour dispute against the director and founder of the organisation Betty Makoni for unfair labour practices and dismissal. Ropafadzo Mapimhidze took the organization to court after her employer locked her out of her workplace and arbitrarily terminated her employment contract for questioning the director’s management of donor funds and workers abuse. Some of the workers threatened to also take the organisation to court and expose the now fugitive Betty Makoni’s fraudulent financial misdeeds that left them unpaid for months while she was funding her luxurious lifestyle and buying personal properties. Having been shamed for the donor funds thieving and irked that international funders had also ceased their funding Betty Makoni changed the organization’s name to Girl Child Network Worldwide (GCNW) in a desperate bid to disassociate herself from GCN. She then embarked on a desperate spree to silence all those who had despised and exposed the donor funds abuse so as to take the blame off her shoulders as she strived to give the world an impression that she was clean and innocent. For the former workers in Zimbabwe, Betty is said to have paid and used her ally and ZanuPF state media journalist Robert Mukondiwa who was also GCN stooge accountant to terrorise all those who had taken her spiders out of the closet and exposed her for donor funds abuse. The disgraced GCN director published fake news on her blog smear campaigning Viomak and claiming that Viomak is a thief and ZanuPF state agent who was sent to destabilize GCN. Fake news has never fazed Viomak who continues to despise political and social ills her troubled nation is facing.
Despite the ineffectiveness and failure of the fake news tactic to silence Viomak, she for a while continued to pay for the effectiveness of her activism through fake news to intimidate her into silence until her enemies realised that she is not intimidated by fake news. On 09 July 2013 an admin of a pro-opposition MDC -T Facebook page called Baba Jukwa now defunct was irked by Viomak’s denouncing of bad leadership, corruption and rape of minors by the leadership in the opposition party MDC-T and also demanding that the leaders declare their personal assets to combat corruption. In a desperate bid to intimidate Viomak into silence, the admin posted fake news on the page lying that Viomak is a ZanuPF state agent (CIO) who is working with some so called ZanuPF state agents based in Pretoria, South Africa, Sheppard, Cecilia, Tatenda, Angela a student at (MSU) and Nkosinathi respectively under Rubson’s orders. Viomak does not know who all these individuals are or if they even exist.
Viomak also supported an anti-ZanuPF campaign by Zimbabweans in the diaspora which saw ZanuPF Gideon Gono’s children deported from Australia. Habitual smear campaigner Barbara Nyagomo former Barbara Nyagomo -Mambo was so irked after Viomak exposed that Barbara who was masquerading as an opposition supporter in public was actually a ZanuPF supporter and a spy behind closed doors and dining with ZanuPF UK chairman Nick Mangwana who is now Zimbabwe’s ZanuPF secretary for information. Viomak shared photos of Barbara Nyagomo and Nick Mangwana dining together. Shamed by the expose Barbara went on to publish fake news about Viomak in a bid to tarnish Viomak’s image. She published on her facebook page fake news that Viomak is an HIV positive prostitute who frequented night spots in Zimbabwe spreading HIV knowingly and has so far killed two men. She added that Viomak frequented a herbal medicine centre in the Avenues in Zimbabwe and the herbalist confirmed to Barbara that Viomak was a valued client for more than 18months and was primarily on a huge dosage of African potato in liquid form or chewed raw and fermented to kill the virus. Following this fake news Viomak had a well publicised HIV test in Britain and results were negative.
As the fake news raged on, an opposition online news platform and MDC-T mouthpiece Zimeye editor Simbarashe Chikanza who is a habitual Viomak fake news publisher deliberately published lies on his news site claiming that Viomak was arrested by police and he did a live on facebook about the fake arrest. This was not true, but the intention was to please his personal ego and was imagining the worst for Viomak .It was his usual sad wish and in his dreams he saw Viomak arrested and in trouble so that no one will denounce and despise his political party in the manner that Viomak does and this was also to stop Viomak from adding her voice to the UK big lottery fund he was accused of fleecing. In addition to despising his party MDC-T, Viomak also supported and shared an anti-donor funds abuse campaign whereby a concerned Zimbabwean who had been cyber bullied by Simbarashe Chikanza named and shamed the bogus editor for fleecing the UK Big lottery fund of £10 000 to set up his Zimeye news blog. On 5 February 2014 the victim stated that Simbarashe consciously and deliberately misled the Big Lottery Fund into releasing Ten Thousand Pounds (£10 000) to him, and the victim hoped Simbarashe will voluntarily own up without anyone spelling to him the contents of part 5 (page 16) grant application form he signed . The victim added that in addition to the unethical journalism Simbarashe Chikanza had misrepresented to the UK Big Lottery Fund in his Grant Application why he needed the £10 000 and this borders on fraud and should pay back the money. Simbarashe was so annoyed by Viomak adding her voice to despise the donor funds abuse such that on 25 April 2016 he threatened to sue Viomak for defamation. Writing to Viomak on WhatsApp Simbabrashe stated his legal claim saying, “I have evidence to prove that the facebook page (HRD) contain serious, untrue and highly defamatory comments towards me, and of which contain malicious falsehoods. In doing so, defamatory comments are being communicated to thousands of people throughout the world, posing a serious threat to my reputation and various individuals around my life”. Viomak advised Simbarashe to proceed with the legal claim but ever since Viomak responded to his bullying behavior his case never saw the light of day. This is not the first time the MDC-T supporter masquerading as a journalist had bullied Viomak into silence. Prior to this legal threat, Simbarashe had phoned Viomak and unsuccessfully convinced her to remove from her page a news article about Gift Mawire, a Zimbabwean man in UK who was arrested for driving under the influence of excess alcohol the story of which made headlines in British mainstream media. Viomak informed Simbarashe that it is not lies that this man was driving drunk in the UK and she refused to remove the story. This did not go down well with Simbarashe who harbored hate towards Viomak ever since this issue happened. The cyberbully continues to make efforts to smear campaign Viomak and tarnish her image by publishing fake news about her whenever he finds a leeway to do so and twisting stories about Viomak to fulfill his personal agenda.
Viomak continues to be an unstoppable courageous voice of the voiceless and voice of reason despising and denouncing bad governance and corruption in Zimbabwe, donor funds abuse and human rights abuses. In 2009, Viomak added her voice in support of HIV-positive Peter Pasipamire who was abused and conned by a heartless documentary maker Hopewell Chin’ono. Peter says in papers filed at the High court that he agreed to appear in his documentary, Pain in My Heart, after the journalist Hopewell promised to pay him US$3000. Peter’s lawyers say Hopewell and his company, Television International Pvt Ltd, took advantage of Peter’s illness when Hopewell approached him to appear in the short film believing Peter would eventually die and hoping Hopewell would get away with paying Peter his dues. Despite Hopewell winning CNN Multi-Choice African journalist of the year award for the 10 minute short film, picking up a us$7,000 cash prize, a laptop computer and a Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship the con artist did not pay Peter his dues. The documentary highlighted the dire shortage of antiretroviral treatment in Zimbabwe, and Peter’s own experience was used to highlight the plight of people living with HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe. It was made clear to Peter that the documentary would be for commercial purposes, on top of being educational and informative. Hopewell made an oral undertaking to pay Peter us$3000 which Peter would use to start-up a business of his choice to enable him to improve his quality of life. Peter accepted the offer since he was in dire need of money to assist him in managing his condition, and believed Hopewell genuinely wanted to assist him. Yet Hopewell made this promise because Peter was bed-ridden and was not expected to live, but grace was nevertheless such that he lived beyond what Hopewell expected and so he was obliged to pay Peter his us$3000. Peter did not get anything from the film which Hopewell through his company was extensively selling, marketing and distributing outside Zimbabwe, but its biggest star Peter benefitted nothing for his central role. Peter’s lawyers said Peter was clearly used, abused and dumped by Hopewell and Television International in order for them to achieve their own personal financial goals, which they did. Hopewell lost the court case and the judgement demanded that he pays Peter his dues and costs. Hopewell was annoyed that Viomak had despised and denounced his inhuman behavior and heartlessness and he was to seek revenge against Viomak. When Viomak was approached by one Zimbabwean family to assist their 4 year old cancer stricken child, Simbarashe Musiyiwa to seek medical care, Hopewell published fake news on his Facebook page telling his followers that the child and the family do not exist. He made frantic efforts to distribute the fake news as fast and as much as he could but not before the news got to Viomak who challenged him and shamed him being heartless on an innocent vulnerable child needing help. Ruthless Hopewell had also sent the fake news to a Zimbabwe online news platform, iharare who quickly removed the article from their site after they realised the article was fake news. The arrogant and malicious Hopewell Chin’ono who claims to be a Harvard trained journalist refused to apologize for the fake news.
A VICTIM OF CYBER BULLYING
In Viomak , many Zimbabweans see a courageous fighter who is always standing in to seek justice on behalf of the abused and down trodden and she offers all this help days on end for free . During her flowery socio-political activism, Viomak has been bullied online mostly by ZanuPF supporters and those she despises for conning and for abusing donor funds. Many Zimbabweans who are conned by individuals, companies, and by fake prophets approach Viomak for help. Among the many online con artists Viomak has despised is a notorious ZanuPF con woman Anesu Anne Chibaro – Mutakiwa aka Anesu MC well known for conning unsuspecting Zimbabweans on facebook in her groups called VIVA Organised Women and Viva Vakadzi Vakarongeka . She was charging unsuspecting facebook users to pay for business adverts she posted in the group for nonexistent products on behalf of her con artist allies. One such trickster and Anesu Anne’s ally is Charity Mugari who the women gave money as part of their monthly rounds and Charity disappeared with the money and changed her phone number. When the women asked Anesu Anne to post in the group to look for Charity she refused.
When challenged, as admin of the group Anesu Anne kicked out from the group all who challenged her to stop the conning .Her devastated victims approached Viomak for help after which Viomak sent a public SOS Scam alert message for others to be aware of the con woman and not fall prey to her chicanery. Irked by the negative publicity and exposure Anesu started an online petition denouncing Viomak for warning unsuspecting Zimbabweans about her thieving and she wished that Viomak be deported to Zimbabwe to face ZanuPF’s wrath. Her desperate petition did not see the light of day or deter Viomak from speaking out against con artists like her and from helping to seek justice for her victims.
In the same vein it is important to also note that some women victims who have fallen prey to facebook group con artists also approached Viomak for help claiming that they were conned by a ZanuPF woman Jenny Memory Msonza . They claimed Jenny Msonza , opened a facebook group Dandaro Remadzimai aNhasi in October 2014 and she was seeking donor funds from the women in the group for Pretty (RIP) but the funds raised never found their way to the Pretty’s cause. The conned women said when they challenged Jenny and the other group admins who they described as bullies they were banned from the group.
In May 2019 and prior to that Viomak was a victim of cyber bullying perpetrated by notorious Scotland based cyber bully and ZanuPF supporter Perseverance Percy Handy Leon Mapira .The Zanupf spy opened fake facebook accounts Fidzoman McGoropiyana Sazhande Mapira , Handy Leon Lee Mapira , Handy Leon Methuzella Chifidzo which he used to terrorise and torment Viomak days on end on facebook and you tube . The dangerous man went on a cyberbullying spree encouraging Zimbabweans to physically attack Viomak and her family whenever they see her in Britain. The ZanuPF thug who is paid handsomely by ZanuPF to harass and intimidate Viomak recorded videos threatening to kill Viomak some of which he uploaded on his facebook and you tube pages. Desperate to destroy Viomak , Percy approached UK based ZanuPF Jenny Memory Msonza who runs a facebook page called Zimbolive with her husband Wedzerayi Mabhande for support with the cyber bullying. Jenny hosted a show on facebook where her husband and herself were encouraging listeners to track Viomak’s family in Zimbabwe and hand them over to ZanuPF lifers. ZanuPF lifers are the HIV positive party’s militia who rape opposing voices to deliberately infect them with HIV. Percy was also briefly supported by an Ezra Tshisa Sibanda to terrorise Viomak on Facebook and threatening her family with disappearance. A few years ago Viomak despised Ezra for child abuse after he was accused of sexually abusing school children in Bulawayo. This was an opportunity from Ezra to settle his personal scores with Viomak.
As if this harassment and terrorism was not enough, the desperate cyber bully Percy started a petition smear campaigning Viomak and threatening that she should be deported to Zimbabwe. This was all desperate efforts by the ZanuPF thug for Viomak to be harmed by his ZanuPF counterparts in Zimbabwe. All his efforts were fruitless as Viomak did not stop her activism she also reported him to the police.
In May 2017 a notorious Mutare based ZanuPF state agent Patrick Mpofu working alongside Scotland based ZanuPF spies Perseverance Percy Handy Leon Mapira and Britain based social worker Cynthia Mafuwa using facebook name Cynthia Machare was assigned to coordinate the kidnapping and murder of Viomak’s family in Zimbabwe using information given to him by Percy and Cynthia. This was after Percy and Cynthia hatched a desperate plan to access Viomak’s immigration records in Britain through Cynthia’s mother who allegedly works for the Home office. Viomak got wind of the plan and she challenged the three dangerous ZanuPF spies. Viomak went on to report Perseverance and Cynthia to their employers Edinburg City Council and Birmingham City Council respectively and she also reported both Percy and Cynthia to the police in UK. The three spies who had been working hand in glove making frantic efforts to destroy Viomak for a long time and desperate for her blood stopped terrorising Viomak when the police and their employers got involved.
A VICTIM OF DEATH THREATS AND TERROR
Viomak is not only directly targeted and terrorised by ZanuPF state agents. Aside from the other horrible experiences she encounters in the struggle for a better Zimbabwe ,the other immediate danger is, Viomak is on an official ZanuPF government death hit list and her family and herself have been threatened with arrest and kidnapping if ever they are to set their feet at any airport in Zimbabwe or seen anywhere in Zimbabwe. For this reason Viomak and her family should skip the border undetected if they are to go to Zimbabwe and should never appear in public where state agents will see her or her family or be seen by anyone who might sell them out to the state agents. Before Viomak returned to Zimbabwe in 2006 having completed her studies in Canada she had to ask a well-wisher to buy her a ZanuPF membership card for security reasons in case she would be asked what party she supports while crossing the border. Mugabe’s CIO’s at the Canadian embassy in Canada hinted their other state agents in Zimbabwe that Viomak will be travelling home after which they waited for her at Harare international airport . A male well-wisher who worked at the Canadian embassy hinted Viomak through a connection beforehand and Viomak changed the route. She went through Botswana and travelled to Zimbabwe by road using public transport. She had to bribe a Zimbabwean immigration officer and a bus conductor to help her cross into Zimbabwe without showing her passport. In Zimbabwe she remained in the outskirts of Harare and would always put on a hat and sunglasses to disguise her appearance. It was very risky and tense that she failed to shoot some music videos.
On top of receiving death threats from Perseverance Mapira , Patrick Mpofu and Cynthia Mafuwa , Viomak and her family continue to receive death threats from other ZanuPF supporters in Zimbabwe and some of who have been planted by ZanuPF in the UK such as, Cliff Gwarada , NaisonTaurwi Gwarada, Cecilia Kadzamira , David Mutuku, Patience Kunyaki, Wadzanayi Maresa, Carol Mutukwa, Yvonne Tendai Marembo, Jordan Khumalo, Stephen Matenga – Utrecht ,Netherlands, Godfrey Tsenengamu , Munyaradzi Shoko , Qubekani Ndlovu, Charlton Tsodzo , Khumbulani Patrick Madzibanzira and Bongani Gumbo. For despising MDC-T Viomak has received death threats from MDC-T supporters such as, Happymore Chidziva aka Cde Bvondo, Charlton Hwende , Dennis Murira , Shakespear Mukoyi and Leo Makwenga who said to Viomak ,“ I have enough ammunition to challenge you and believe me by tomorrow I will be done with you permanently”.
A VICTIM OF STATE CENSORSHIP
After being targeted by the state, the state newspaper The Herald responded to her music by publishing a story denouncing her in an article from its mouthpiece ZUM (Zimbabwe Union of Musicians) urging the government to take necessary measures against her to ensure that musicians operate ethically and avoid abusing privileges. The union’s concern was prompted by her music that speaks against President Robert Mugabe and ZanuPF and quoted as saying, “A musician cannot be so satanic and abuse her privileged position as to churn out albums attacking the person of a democratically, popularly and legitimately elected leader.” This led to the government’s agents threatening her with death and constantly targeting her life and the lives of her my family and placed on a death list. Since that Viomak faces threats from ZanuPF leaders and supporters on email, internet, and on social media. Mugabe’s central intelligence organisation (torture agents) founded by Happyton Bonyongwe are on alert with one Kwabena even threatening Viomak in print media.
In Zimbabwe protest artistes are assaulted, arrested, kidnapped and tortured or murdered leaving no trace of their whereabouts. Their families are also targets whereby the ZanuPF state agents kidnap and torture family members until their targets come out of hiding and murder the relatives if the targets don’t come out of hiding. Viomak’s music is severely oppressed despite the fact that the constitution of Zimbabwe guarantees the right to free expression in Section 20 by stating that, “Except with his own consent or by way of parental discipline, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, that is to say, freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference and freedom from interference with his correspondence.” Repressive laws the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which were drafted by the ZanuPF minister of information Professor Jonathan Moyo and enforced in 2002 to silence opposing and independent voices are her worst enemies. Opposing POSA means a death sentence, 5 year jail term or a hefty fine if found guilty for contravening the laws. These oppressive laws make it an uphill task to record, promote and disseminate Viomak’s protest music in Zimbabwe. There is total censorship of her music in state newspapers and on radio. Independent newspapers are at risk of being charged under AIPPA if they write her stories and the real truth about her music and the public officials she despises and blames for the downfall of Zimbabwe as a result of corruption, incompetence and selfishness.
ARRESTS OVER VIOMAK MUSIC
It is guerilla warfare. Those found in possession of Viomak music or caught listening to the music and in possession of the music or the music artwork images face a hefty fine or a lengthy jail sentence. Three Zimbabweans who were found on separate occasions in possession of a Robert Mugabe artwork image designed by Viomak to promote her Happy 87th Birthday President Robert Mugabe (Operation Matibili) protest music album were arrested. A South African-based Zimbabwean man, Benias Madhakasi, was thrown in police custody in April 2012. He was arrested in Beitbridge and jailed for about four months for insulting the president after it was discovered that he had an image and inscription on his mobile phone that read, “Happy 87th Birthday (Operation Matibili),” referring to the president’s nickname. He was charged under the Criminal Law Act and was only freed after the High Court threw out all the charges he was facing. In a second case, a Zimbabwean woman and Bulawayo resident Shantel Rusike was arrested on 24 December, 2012 and held for four days after she was reported to the police for sending the same image depicting President Mugabe in a nude state via WhatsApp on her mobile phone. Shantel, was out on us$100 bail, facing charges of “causing hatred, contempt or ridicule of the president,” as delineated in the CODE. As of mid-2013, her case was still before the courts. On 04 February 2013 Ronald Chikambure appeared in court charged with ‘undermining the office of the President after he was found with the same image.
ANGRY FEEDBACK
On her website guest book there are comments written by some people Viomak is convinced are Zanu PF supporters. One “Kwabena” using a fake name wrote,“You have become shallow in your thinking, and I pray you are not infertile as the sterile race of whites you worship because you will be worthless to humanity”.Another comment said, “Dogs may bark but the train moves on”, meaning Viomak the dog can bark but Zanu PF moves on. In July 2006, an official of the Zimbabwe Union of Musicians compared Viomak to Satan when he wrote in the State owned newspaper, the Herald that, “the union was appalled that some Zimbabwean musicians could be so immoral, unethical and lose their sense of humanity and principles and a musician cannot be so satanic and abuse her privileged position as to churn out albums attacking the person of a democratically, popularly and legitimately elected leader.” Such attacks can send chills in the spine but It didn’t scare Viomak, though. In 2006 she sneaked into Zimbabwe where she re-recorded her first album, ‘Happy 82nd birthday President R.G Mugabe (Emotions of the emotionless)’, and also recorded her second album ‘Happy 83rd birthday president R.G Mugabe (Bones of a 30 year old)’. She managed to miraculously roam the streets of Zimbabwe for at least three months before she fled the country.
CRITICISIM
Following her unmatched pursuit for social justice and political justice and a better and upright Zimbabwe for all citizens Viomak is enough proof that human beings can not only withstand evil, but can also find courage in crisis, and hope in the most hopeless of situations. She has strongly supported efforts to denounce social immorality, political immorality, religious immorality, and many other tendencies and immoralities ravaging Zimbabwe and is responsible for the moral degradation that is impacting on children’s moral development and a decayed society. She gives Zimbabweans the strength to find wisdom and grace during these challenging times. However, as they say we cannot please everyone, Viomak is criticized by her haters for publicly denouncing their political parties, corruption, despising societal ills, and for demanding what is right for children and the rest of society at large. Desperate efforts to silence her voice have led to her being a victim of ZanuPF spying, smear campaigns, fake news, cyber bullying, death threats and state censorship.
CONTROVERSY
Viomak has unraveled feathers through her protest music, activism and campaigns. She sings the truth that some don’t want to hear. She speaks the truth that some don’t want to hear. She critically analyses issues in a way that some don’t want to hear. She demands the rights that some don’t want to hear. She fights for justice that some don’t want to hear. Through all this, her work has stirred controversy as well as recommendations to keep going as Zimbabwe needs people of her calibre to help the needy, save the nation and bring back sanity. The controversy that her work cultivates has also led to her being a victim of ZanuPF spying, smear campaigns, fake news, cyber bullying, death threats and state censorship.
MUSIC RELEASED
Viomak has so far released NINETEEN (19) protest music albums FIFTEEN (15) of which are specifically dedicated to the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe and ZANUPF, the terrorists she blames for Zimbabwe’s social and economic downfall, kidnapping, torture and murder of opposing voices and the destruction of the once breadbasket of Africa . In 2008 she released a separate music album called ‘Zimbabwe Circus’ and sings against the Government of National Unity (GNU), the political marriage between the ruling party ZANUPF and main opposing party MDC –T. She denounces the union and likens it to putting lipstick on a monkey and a non –event which will just further drain Zimbabwe’s resources instead of solving the crises facing the country. She describes the union as a failed achievement infested with political intolerance of other opposition voices, incompetence, thieving and corruption from both political parties. In 2010 she released her first single song called ‘Chinja Maitiro’ to seal a government anti-corruption Declare Assets Campaign that she spearheaded since 2009 calling for MDC-T leaders to declare their personal assets so as to combat corruption and be different from ZanuPF. The campaign fell on deaf ears and MDC leaders went on to be as corrupt as ZanuPF leaders which led Viomak to release the song 6na9 (6 and 9) implying that the difference between ZanuPF and MDC-T is the same. Also her courage is to be found in her music that challenges Mugabe and his dreaded ZanuPF party in a string of songs criticising the treatment of women and children in times of political crises. As a child abuse advocate, Viomak released a music album Child Abuse in 2010, protesting against child sexual abuse and other forms of child abuse. As women empowerment advocate Viomak released a music album Hello Women in 2011 protesting against women abuse and empowering women to be vehicles for social change against oppression. She continues to be a renowned mouth piece of vulnerable children and women. In 2012 she released the album Good Nonsense Unearthed (GNU) the music of which despises MDC -T leadership for dining with ZanuPF and forgetting what the struggle is about. Viomak reminds the opposition that they were blaming ZanuPF for corruption and misgovernance but their leadership and support base is also infested with incompetent, corrupt leaders and intolerant supporters who just bootlick their leaders which is very undemocratic and not different from ZanuPF leaders and supporters behaviour.
MORE VIOMAK WORK
Viomak continues to be a philanthropist, socio-political activist, human rights defender and influencer of note whose music is banned in Zimbabwe and thus she relies on the internet to inspire through her activism and charity work. In January 2007 Viomak set up Zimbabwe Institute For Free Expression (ZIFFE) an institute that educates Zimbabweans on their right to freedom of expression and opinion of which Viomak is a freedom of speech advocate. The organisation advocates for free speech and campaigns for freedom of expression and opinion to be respected so as to achieve democracy in Zimbabwe and in Africa. Not willing to be silenced, on 18 April 2008 Viomak was instrumental in setting up VOTO (Voices of the Oppressed) an internet radio station to offer publicity and free airplay to banned protest music, poetry and other art. The radio station features and airs podcasts of works of censored and banned Zimbabwean performing artists (especially musicians), fine artists and creative artists. The launch date coincidences with Zimbabwe’s historical independence from white rule but the independence never came with black rule as Zimbabweans are suffering oppression under ZanuPF black rule. In August 2009, Viomak set up Zimbabwe Protest Movement (ZIPROMO), a platform that promotes the work of banned Zimbabwe protest artists and helps to publicise their banned work and feature their profiles. She is planning on initiating an award winning programme, Zimbabwe Protest Arts Awards (ZIPAA) that will recognise protest artists for their work. She is working on her Biography titled Tears in a Voice Thunderstorm.
Through her activism Viomak continues to denounce women abuse, challenge women abusers and stop them from sexually abusing women and treating women like sex objects or rags. She tirelessly works for women to be treated with respect and has challenged men who abuse women on social medical platforms such as facebook and instagram. Among the men she has publicly challenged for degrading and sexually abusing women on social media are Mandla Calvin Gumbo who records facebook lives asking sober and drunk women to undress for him and engage in sexual activities for him in front of the public. Viomak has also challenged Zimbabwean singer Mcdonald Sheldon (Quonfuzed) and serial womaniser Genius Kadungure (Ginimbi) for asking women to undress and twerk for them on instagram. Genius who was notorious for masterminding such twerking competitions before instagram suspended his account for two weeks for going against their community standards, lured women to undress for him live on instagram and he would pay the winner us$1000.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLAR ARTICLES
Viomak’s artistic activism has been published in various research papers and scholarly articles such as Journalist Blogs and Political activism of the Zimbabwean Diaspora: Opportunities for, and challenges to, transnational mobilization (Jenny Kuhlmann ,2010), Journalist blogs and social media in Zimbabwe (John Mpofu, 2017) in European Journal of Social Sciences Studies , The Glass Fortress : Zimbabwe’s Cyber-guerilla Warfare (Clapperton Mavhunga, 2008) in Journal of International Affairs, Global Civil Society and Alternative Online News: The Case of OhmyNews International and Groundreport in Media and Global Civil Society (Dencik Lina, 2012), Sounds of Life: Music, Identity and Politics in Zimbabwe (2016) edited by Fainos Mangena, Ezra Chitando, Itai Muwati and Interface of Music and Politics :Versions of Patriotic Consciousness in Zimbabwe Music , 1970-2015 ( Reggemore Marongedze , 2019). The Centre for political song library in Glasgow archived Viomak music for use by students, researchers and the general public. The Centre for political song library in Glasgow, Scotland also archives her music for use by students and researchers and the general public.
EDUCATION
Viomak holds a B.A General Degree (University of Zimbabwe) majoring in geography, shona and philosophy, Graduate Certificate in Education (University of Zimbabwe), Diploma in Educational Foundations (University of Zimbabwe), majoring in psychology and sociology, Masters of Arts in Education (Canada), BSc Honours Social Sciences (UK) and Master of Science (Public Health) in UK. Due to pressure of charity and human rights work home in 2010 Viomak deferred her PhD studies in Education in UK. In 2017 she deferred her PhD Media Studies (UK). Viomak says if the need arises she will soon pursue PhD studies in Social Sciences as she feels she is more of a humanist and social scientist all in all considering all her talents, skills and passions. Having done all this impressive work for humanity and for her fellow Zimbabweans, Viomak went on to form a political party, Zimbabwe Development Leaders (ZIDELE /ZDL) in 2010 .She is hoping to pursue politics in order to rescue Zimbabwe from the pit she is in by grooming good leaders with modern day skills of leading nations and developing philanthropic and empathetic minds and hearts, traits she feels are lacking in many Zimbabweans yet very crucial in leadership. She is well known for demanding that Zimbabweans change their mindsets for a better Zimbabwe as much of the thinking is archaic and unprogressive.