Vimbaishe Musvaburi

Vimbaishe Musvaburi
Vimbaishe Musvaburi
Born	Vimbaishe Musvaburi; Mberengwa
Occupation	Activist;
Known for	Being an activist.

Vimbaishe Musvaburi is a Zimbabwean model, media personality and TV talk show host on 10 Minutes With Vimbai. She is also a political and women's rights activist.

Background

She was born in Mberengwa and lived there until she was 7 before her parents bought a house in Bulawayo.She has a brother called Tendai and a son.^[1]

Early Life

In an interview she revealed she was raped at the age of 6 by her father's cousin who was living at their house and being taken to school by her parents. She said that he should have been 20 at that time and he raped her many times. She also disclosed that she was also molested at 7 by her aunt’s boyfriend but there was no penetration. She said that she was scared to tell anyone but she accidentally told her mother while they were walking home from school and they saw two boys bathing as they passed by a river. The matter was reported to the elders and the cousin was banned from their house. Narrating the incident Vimbai said:

The rapist managed to scare me from telling anyone but after a while innocently as a child it came out. One day when my mom and I were walking home from the school she was teaching we passed by a river and two boys were bathing by the river bank. So my mom quickly covered my face not wanting me to see that. That’s when I said “but Mama Sekuru vane yakadaro” meaning but Uncle has the same as the ones they have. Mom being a woman quickly said “Vee you don’t look at boys when they are bathing.” Because in her head she thought I meant that I saw him bath. But LATER THAT day her motherly instinct did not let her rest, so she called me and asked nicely and begged me to tell her what has happened, assuring me I would not be in trouble. I remember vividly the look on my mom’s face and as a mother today I know that if death was near, my mom would have grabbed it but she had to be strong. So she quickly took my dad’s car, being in the village, my dad was not so keen on her driving but she insisted, at that stage she had not told him what had transpired. We drove to my aunt’s house, a mupostori and the most powerful woman I have ever known, she was literally running a maternity hospital in her homestead and she still does. My mother told her what had happened and she asked to check if my hymen had been broken and she had the shock of her life. Now here was my mother who had been teaching me to be a girl and she would teach me to wash my bottom on my own. She cried for not checking on me on a daily basis. I remember she would say “geza mushe ne towel” even today I remember the pain when I would wash with the towel.
Cutting the story short, the elders were told and I remember there was a large meeting under a tree in our homestead with loads of men and they were throbbing the young man who had raped me, thereafter I don’t remember ever seeing him at our home or anywhere near. No one spoke to me about it. My parents thought they had dealt with it, bless them. Little did they know that the memory would not leave me for even one second. Even today I remember the pain, the smell and every detail I just choose not to let it interfere with my life that’s all.
I remember him coming to visit our family home when I was on holiday from England and my dad thought I had forgotten but on that day I was grown I literally asked him and his wife to leave. 3 years after that I heard he was taken by the Lord.

^[1]

Education

She started her education at Greenfield Primary School in Barham Green suburb in Bulawayo and then went to St James Girls High in Nyamandlovu for her secondary education. She went to England at the age of 17 where she studied nursing and also obtained a diploma in Health studies.^[1]

Career

She started modelling and theatre production at the age of 18. At the age of 20, she was a contestant at the Miss Zim UK and was doing photographic modelling for Black Hair magazine. She lived in England for 11 years and besides working in the health sector she owned a hair salon in Leicester until she came back to Africa. When she returned she continued as an entrepreneur and ran a high fashion boutique and hair salon named Intombie and a flower design, and delivery service before she ventured into the entertainment industry.

She was based in South Africa for 2 years and landed an award ceremony project before working for Vth Season, for a year. After her experience in South Africa she decided to produce her own talk show called 10 minutes with Vimbai. She also started a women’s network called Intombie Young Women in Business.^[1]

Controvesy

Meikles Drama

On the 21st of November 2017 when Robert Mugabe resigned from the presidency, Musvaburi and her friends were reported to have caused a scene at Meikles Hotel where they took the former presidents' portrait without the hotels' permission.Musvaburi later apologised to the management at Meikles Hotel and cited that she had acted out of emotion.The video of Musvaburi and her friends taking down the portrait was widely shared on social media.^[2]