The Masiyiwa’s have been at the centre of several conversations on Twitter in the past year. Generally the couple is quite popular in Zimbabwe but recently there has been polarised opinions regarding the technology entrepreneur and his wife.
Strive’s opinion on President Mnangagwa
Strive Masiyiwa got both very extremely positive and extremely negative reactions when he expressed that he believed President Emmerson Mnangagwa was sincere and therefore needed to be supported by the removal of sanctions.
Rutendo Mandinyarare, a social media personality based in South Africa has also been making a lot of accusations against Strive Masiyiwa and his companies in the past 2 months. This led to Econet Lawyers writing him threatening to sue.
Tsitsi Masiyiwa and her opinions
In April last year Tsitsi Masiyiwa commented on Zimbabwe’s work ethic on Twitter. I doubt she expected some of the backlash she received for her comment. Some folks strongly believed that she was too ‘privileged’ to have any such opinion. The ensuing debate caught us by surprise actually, emotions seemed to run high.
A few weeks ago Tsitsi posted a tweet saying:
Some outcries and actions in pursuit of justice seem and look so right until you discover the source of the outcry and sponsor of the cause. Take a step back and reflect on some of the things we consider good and just causes.
Frankly when I saw the tweet I didn’t read anything into it. I thought it was some generalised statement made by someone who had just discovered something and was sharing an ‘epiphany.’
The tweet attracted a lot of comment from some of the most popular twitter commentators in Zimbabwe. For example Patson Dzamara responded:
What is the bottom line? Justice is the bottom line. Whether any quest for justice emanates from a volcano or is sponsored by a storm, it remains noble and progressive. We will not tire neither shall we let injustice prevail in our midst, whatever it takes.
And Dewa Mavhinga tweeted:
If you are implying that all and any outcry and pursuit of justice is sponsored then that really is sad. When your husband pursued his fight to be licensed it was a just cause. In such position of privilege, you should choose your words more carefully, lest you promote injustice.
Both Patson and Dewa are human rights activists in Zimbabwe.
Tsitsi leaves Twitter
As the reactions raged on, Tsitsi Masyiwa decided to delete her Twitter account. Her husband Strive referred to this in a comment on Facebook last night. He narrated how his wife had contributed much to Zimbabwe through the Higher Life Foundation. His full comment:
The Higher Life Foundation has provided scholarships for 200,000 children in Zimbabwe over the last 20 years. With a permanent staff of more than 200 people, it works in every single province of Zimbabwe.
Every year the foundation gives scholarships to 100 gifted children (10 from each province, including 50 girls). This 18 year program which we call Joshua Nkomo Scholarship prepares students to go to some of the best universities in the world. This program has produced a Rhodes Scholar 5 years in a row. There are currently 354 Joshualites studying in the United States.Now here is something I want to put on record:
#1. Higher Life Foundation and the Joshua Nkomo Scholarship program, is entirely the brain child of my wife Tsitsi Masiyiwa.
She is the one who set them up and EVERY OTHER PROGRAM and manages them on a full time basis.She just comes to me for the money.
She is also the one who finds all the donor partners who we work with throughout Africa.I have never seen the foundation, and I have never participated in any of its activities, beyond providing the money. I’m not even a board member.
I have not been to Zimbabwe for 18 and half years, but in all those years my wife insisted she would continue to go there, and was once detained and questioned by Mugabe’s police for an entire day.
She travels the length and breadth of Zimbabwe every year supporting orphaned and vulnerable children,
#2. When the Cholera outbreak began in Zimbabwe a few months ago. It was my wife who showed me the World Health Organization presentation that predicted that it could kill 10,000 people, if it went unchecked:
She demanded that I put up $10m to cover the cost. Subsequently she asked for another $10m. Now she has asked that I commit $60m to help restore water and sewage piping in Harare.She is the one who drafted the letters that I had to sign to donors around the world.
To paraphrase the Apostle Jude, “we must contend, and fight for that which is good.”
I would like to thank all those friends like Trevor Ncube, who have stood up for my wife whilst she was being cyber bullied, shouted down and stalked on platforms like Twitter.
Sadly one of the foremost bullies is a Zimbabwean who works for an international organization that is highly respected for its work on human rights. It’s founder, now 95 is a close family friend. I hope my human rights friend is happy now that he has stopped her from using Twitter. Maybe now he and others like him will stop this pathetic misogyny.
What about the rights of women like my wife to also express an opinion?
Strive Masiyiwa.
The person referred to by Strive as being employed by his friend seems to be Dewa Mavhinga. Jonathan Moyo who is also quite vocal on Twitter had this to say in response to Strive’s comment:
One need not hold a brief for @dewamavhinga to realise how shocking, outrageous & unacceptable it is for Strive Masiyiwa to accuse Dewa of cyberbullying his wife; & top that by peddling his crap accusation on the Internet while name dropping, in the hope of costing Dewa his job!
…who are the “some” & what gives Strive the notion that Tsitsi has a right to condemn the “some” without any objection from anyone?
…The apoplectic response by Strive Masiyiwa is disproportionate. And it’s particularly nauseating that Strive drags Dewa’s employer into the imbroglio!
Strive also leaves Twitter
Strive Masiyiwa has also left Twitter or suspended his account. You can’t find him there anymore. Sounds like it’s an interesting 2019 already.
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13 comments
Rich people throwing cyber hissy fits. Yawwwwwwwwwn.
Coming up next , North Korean leader recounts how he survived cyber bullying from Trump. Meh….
Am i the only one wondering if the $10 and $60 million are in US or Bond dollars?
I think they shouldnt read much into social media; pple have the guts to type things that they cant say face to face. Not necessary to delete their accounts at all.
Tell him to get his friend ED to work and get us out of this mess that Robert and him created
Hey stop fighting wherever the place twitter is! Come help us fix the the economy ! We have run out of ideas already !
I don’t see enough reasons to warranty deleting of twitter accounts on the basis of people’s responses. I suppose if you you speak in public you draw comments from the public. The nature/quality of responses obviously differ from one person to the next. This action by the Masiiwas is in itself, cyber bulling.
truth be told these are broke folks ranting off at rich people. The source of this is not what Mrs Masiyiwa or Strive Masiyiwa said. Its a fight of rich againtlst poor lol. Ndo zviripo Zimbabweans dont have much nice to say about rich people. Just track how the established prophets are persecuted, and other rich people are attacked. Kana usina mari nyarara hako. lol thats my advice. Dont rage out your poverty driven fury because someone said such a vague statement. Vamwe vanhu vanoda kungonzi ndakazomuidza. Hapana zvaunoziva show me the money? tione zvaunoziva. Kudos to the Masiyiwa’s. they’ve done a lot for Zimbabwe. and for them leaving, is part of *guarding the heart*. A noble decision trust me. Now the majority , have to suffer from yheir absence on twitter jist because of some guys who want to proove they are smart for nothing. with nothing to show for it. Hate it or love it. Chimboita zvekubestera vamwe mwana wevhu not zvekuudza vanhu patwitter. Dont hate rich people coz of their money.
You can’t just say these are broke folk responding. 2 of the guys mentioned by Strive are actually rich. The problem is more on how we disagree as Zimbabweans. Sadly all our disagreements over political issues get personal. I was telling one of my friends that when Tsisti said Zimbos are lazy, she was simply the wrong messenger for the right message. We do know people she was referring to, it was just something hard to accept being called lazy by someone well off. I disagree with almost all of Strive’s recent political comments, but I agree that he has a rigth to his own opinion just like I do. Another issue is this is the 1st time the Masiyiwa’s have been criticized. In Econet, everything they say is treated as holly. That’s why noone stood up to them internally when Kwese was launched even though evryone internaaly knew there was no content to compete agaist MultiCHoice.
Very soon you’l see cyber bullying laws being passed. Watch the space. You dont mess with influebtial people at that level withought provoking some kind of change. Someobe is going to lobby fines and enforcement against cyber bullying….its coming! You cant fight strive at that level and thibk you’l win. That man knows his God wooo!
The Masiiwas are right. There are some people who just shout for the sake of it. Its just bad. Opinions must be shared in an amicable environment. As ease as ABC
What’s wrong with the responses Tsitsi got from Dewa and Patson?
As someone not on Twitter. I followed a link to a story on Clifton beach saga in Cape Town. I was so shocked to read the bile that people spew. I am not sure if it is just a South African thing or the same happens on Zim twitter (remember I am not on twitter). Whats interesting is I have white neighbors who I get along with very well. South African Twitter or the feeds I read from the story paint a different picture. All this leaves one wondering what the true reality is. I am staying away from Twitter.
1. Clifton saga was highly sensationalized/racialized by political opportunists like BLF and EFF.
2. You getting along with your neighbors does not mean people getting kicked off a public beach was ok.
3. You can’t use the Clifton saga as a Twitter benchmark and use it in comparison with the Tsitsi case. They are totally different. Check the comments for any of Tsitis’s tweet, you will not see very little vile. Most people were actually seeking understanding.
Eversince Tsitsi and Strive started tweeting about politics, they have been getting a lot of lashback, a lot of it is to be expected. You can’t expect to tweet supporting ED and not get lashbacks. Just look at the demogrephics of people on Zim Twitter. They are young people mostly fed up with what’s happening in Zimbabwe.
Cyber-bullying strive using his Econet network kkkk ungrateful bastards.