Biography
Tendai Chabvuta is a Zimbabwean who studied Political Science at the University of Zimbabwe in 2002. He began his career as a Researcher and then as Head of Research at the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, a leading human rights research organisation in Zimbabwe where he was responsible for producing various reports on human rights violations and torture in Zimbabwe during the early and late 2000s. During his stint in Zimbabwe, he got an opportunity to become a Fellow with the International Centre for Transitional Justice and went on to study Transitional Justice at the University of Cape Town in 2004. This created grounds for his interest in transitional justice.
One of his proudest moments in life remains being awarded the much coveted and competitive Canon Collins scholarship for a Masters in Human Rights Law majoring in Transitional Justice at the Transitional Justice Institute at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland (2005-2006). The scholarship gave him a chance to get acquainted with senior academics in the human rights and transitional justice fields in Northern Ireland as well as visiting professors and United Nations Special Rapporteurs among other specialists from the rest of the world.
Tendai has also worked on several human rights and governance projects within Zimbabwe and South Africa as well as organisations such as Interpeace. Tendai currently does consultancy work in East and Southern Africa (Somalia, Kenya, South Africa) with the United Nations and other agencies focusing on supporting core government institutions in fragile states. He regards this role as challenging but also very fulfilling because in most instances the change sought is tangible and has contributed to peace, stability and reconciliation in the states and communities where he has worked. Tendai remains connected to Zimbabwe and from time to time contributes to political and policy debates through writing.