Like many other young educated Zimbabweans, Edmore Gwati had to toil for years in college so that he can develop his country for current and future generations.

And precisely that is why he had to spend four years studying for a degree in Information Systems at the Midlands State University in Gweru.

A fiery human rights activist, Gwati joined the Zimbabwe National Students Union, an anti-establishment students’ union body that is at college level opposed to the Zimbabwe Congress of Students, an appendage of the ruling party.

He wanted to see a better Zimbabwe where everyone had equal opportunities.

Despite the occasional clashes with the state security agencies because of his activism then, Gwati vowed to stay put and help build the ideal Zimbabwe where everyone had equal access to basic human rights and equal opportunities.

But that was not the case to be along the way!

Soon after college and as a first born in a family of four, Gwati soon realised that taking care of his siblings was going to be an uphill task with the level of corruption, looting and nepotistic tendencies that were obtaining in the country.

An idea struck the out of college and unemployed Gwati, a notion which he thought was the only way out of the sea of poverty which his and many other Zimbabwean families faced.

He told himself that the only way of changing the status quo was to join the pro labour opposition party- the MDC Alliance.

The MDC Alliance was formed from members of the broad coalition of civic society groups led by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

And its core aspirations were to return the country back to constitutionalism, curb corruption, nepotism as well as provide an enabling environment for growth and employment creation.

Thus, the idea of joining the opposition became very attractive to those who had graduated from colleges and universities and had no formal employment

As he later narrated in an interview from his hide out, outside the country where he is domiciled for fear of reprisals from the brutal state security agencies, he said, “Due to my ambitions and desire for a great change in my country I later joined MDC Alliance as active member and was later appointed Youth Coordinator for Glenview South Constituency”.

Glen View south is located in Harare and is widely viewed as a stronghold of opposition politics.

Gwati lost two close associates in the hands of the brutal state agencies.

Precisely, it is one of the reason he has gone underground.

One by one they are being hunted and taken down for being active members of the opposition.

Glenview has always been a hot bed of opposition politics.

In March 2015, famous journalist Itai Dzamara, was abducted by state agencies in an unmarked car and never to be seen up to now in the same Glen View neighborhood.

It is widely suspected that he was killed in cold blood.

Gift Tandare, a well-known member of the MDC Alliance was also shot dead by state agents in the same area at a prayer meeting.

He was denied burial space in Harare, as government feared reprisals from the citizens.

Gwati’s role then was crucial for growing the opposition support base, hence he was targeted by security agencies linked to the ruling party.

Gwati organized two effective flash demonstrations against the spiraling high cost of living.

All hell broke loose, and the blood sucking state agencies put him under the spotlight.

As fate would have it, in November 2021, Gwati and his close opposition companions were on their usual daily regime that of mobilizing voters in light of the impending 2023 harmonized elections which are widely tipped to be a bloodbath, with the ruling party ZANU PF losing its stranglehold on power as a result of the high cost of living coupled with high unemployment levels.

As a result, their resistant nature made them unpopular with state security agents and ZANU PF watch dogs.

They were already a target for abduction and possible death.

Infact, when they organized a week long industrial action which led to the arrest of 200 demonstrators and the subsequent repressive military intervention which followed to quell the uprising, the quest from the regime for Gwata and his acolytes to be guest of the state in the dreaded torture chambers ran by the dreaded Central Intelligence Agencies grew.

State brutality on civilians grew by unimaginable proportions especially for known opposition activists.

As the state crackdown on human rights and other basic fundamentals grew, the, international community tightened the leash on the Zimbabwean government by extending the sanction regime.

Things would get worse in November 2021 when he started to be followed by unmarked vehicles.

All hell broke loose one night when he was coming out of a club with a friend who had visited from Namibia.

 They were attacked by state security agencies escaping by a whisker, that is when he said enough was enough and decided to leave the country.