Norton MP, Temba Mliswa (Independent), said that in a democratic country, the late legal expert Alex Tawanda Magaisa would have been appointed the Attorney General.
The Attorney General is the main legal advisor to the government.
Posting on the microblogging site Twitter, Mliswa said Magaisa was “a cut above the rest” and an intellectual hero. He said:
Painful news. Magaisa was a great legal mind, sober and never aggressive despite what you threw at him. Anga ane hunhu.
In a better country, he would have been the Attorney General. He was a cut above the rest.
The intellectuals should have their own Heroes Acre where people like Magaisa should be laid. I shared many platforms with him and felt respected to share a stage with him.
A well-researched guy. Once wrote things about me but I respected him because he researched and had facts.
When he commended me for my work in Parliament it really made me believe I was doing something right. We have lost a true hero and a democrat. Very sad indeed.
My condolences to his family and the rest of the nation. Zvarwadza izvi!!
Meanwhile, South African-based ZANU PF activist and Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement leader Rutendo Matinyarare suggested that Magaisa’s death is linked to “avenging spirits”, further alleging that the now-deceased called for sanctions to be imposed on the country. He tweeted:
Yet another lawyer who supported sanctions on Zim, Alex Magaisa, dies six months after another lawyer, Dewa Mavinga, also died while supporting sanctions on poor Zimbabweans, including his parents.
All die less than 1 year after #UNHRC says sanctions on Zim are illegal. Ngozi?
Dewa Mavhinga was a lawyer and Southern African Director of Human Rights Watch. He died of suspected COVID-19 complications on 4 December 2021.