The evening will be chaired by The Hon. Dame Linda Dobbs DBE, who was the first black person to be appointed a High Court judge in the UK and became chairman of the Criminal Bar Association in 2003.
The breath-taking speed of developments in Zimbabwe during the past few months has caught many Zimbabwe watchers by surprise and in need of a fresh perspective.
Ben Freeth MBE, executive director of the Mike Campbell Foundation, will share the platform with Christina Lamb OBE, one of Britain's leading foreign correspondents, who has written extensively on Zimbabwe.
Christina Lamb OBE
Lamb is a frequent commentator on Zimbabwe on radio and television in Britain, Canada, Australia and the United States and is the author of House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-torn Zimbabwe.
She has won numerous awards, including Young Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards for her coverage of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1988 and the Foreign Press Association award for reporting on Zimbabwean teachers forced into prostitution.
Ben Freeth MBE
Freeth studied at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester and worked on farms in New Zealand, Tasmania and subsequently in Zimbabwe.
During the latter 1990s, as regional executive officer for the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU), he was asked to give an impromptu speech at a rally about the help that white commercial farmers were giving to black farmers and it was here that he met President Mugabe for the first time.
Freeth earned President Mugabe’s ire in 2007 when he and his late father-in-law, Mike Campbell, took President Mugabe’s ZANU PF government to court in the Southern African Development Community’s regional court, the SADC Tribunal.
The Campbell lawsuit was chronicled in the award-winning 2009 documentary film Mugabe and the White African.
Freeth has subsequently written two books, Mugabe and the White African, and When Governments Stumble: Lessons from Zimbabwe’s Past and Hope in Zimbabwe’s Future.
Bear Grylls and Beatrice Mtetwa
The evening will be introduced on video by acclaimed international adventurer Bear Grylls. A film clip of Beatrice Mtetwa, a courageous Zimbabwean lawyer, will be screened.
Hope for Zimbabwe
The International Crisis Group (ICG)’s September 29 report on Zimbabwe notes that the economy remains in dire straits with growth forecasts revised downward several times since the July 2013 elections.
The World Food Program warns that 72% of the country’s population live below the national poverty line on less than US$1.24 a day and has described Zimbabwe as a low-income, food-deficit country.
Despite the gloomy economic outlook and the extraordinary developments in the brutal race to succeed President Mugabe (90), Freeth still believes in the future of Zimbabwe.
Tickets cost £15 and the programme is from 7pm to 9pm on Tuesday November 4. Doors open at 6pm and refreshments will be on sale before and after the event. – Order tickets online at: www.mikecampbellfoundation.com
Post published in: Analysis
It is one thing to let Mugabe deny us our vote, we must never allow him take away our self-believe and hope in a better tomorrow as well!