Shepherd Yuda
Shepherd Yuda is a former Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services officer.
Background
Wife
He is married to Mejury.[1]
Children
As of 2009, Yuda had three children with his wife Mejury. The children are Flora, Clarah, and Clint.[1]
Education
In 2009 he was studying towards a computer course at Stockton Riverside College. In September that same year, he had plans to study towards a degree in applied science and forensic investigation at the University of Teesside.[1]
Career
He served as a prison's officer for 13 years. A highly trained weapons instructor, Yuda ranked third in an annual rifle contest and received an award from Robert Mugabe.
In 2000 he became a supporter of the MDC. He was consequently beaten, imprisoned, suspended from work and, after successfully contesting the suspension in court, demoted to a low-ranking job on half-pay.[2]
Vote Rigging Video
Whilst working at Harare Central Prison he was chosen by United Kingdom publication The Guardian to film life behind Zimbabwe's prison walls. He did the task for six tense days in the run-up to the 2008 election. Whilst filming he uncovered evidence of vote-rigging. The video featured a Mugabe supporter organising vote-rigging by getting prison officers to fill in their postal ballots in his presence.
Yuda's clandestine filming was a solitary operation that he kept secret from his wife and at night he recorded his thoughts in a video diary.[2]
His undercover film won the best news programme at the 2009 Broadcast Awards in the United Kingdom.[1]
Asylum
After fleeing Zimbabwe he went to the United Kingdom where he was granted asylum and now lives in Stockton.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Dad risked life to reveal Zimbabwe vote fix scandal, Teesside Live, Published; February 18, 2009, Retrieved: February 20, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Paul Lewis,'I was being loyal to a government that was not loyal to its people', The Guardian, Published: July 5, 2008, Retrieved: February 20, 2021
