R2K Champions 2017: Godfrey Maximilian Phiri

Phiri was an elected Right2Know leader, and committed activist against corruption and xenophobia. He passed away on the eve of R2K’s 6th anniversary.

Comrade Godfrey Phiri, an elected member of R2K’s national working group, and R2K Gauteng’s elected Provincial Coordinator was active in many other organisations and movements, including Amnesty International, the People’s Coalition Against Xenophobia, and the anti-corruption movement.

Phiri’s comrades describe him as a true pan-Africanist and an unacknowledged hero of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. As a founding member of the Movement for Democratic Change, he moved to South Africa 13 years ago after being targeted by the Mugabe regime for working within the MDC’s security department in Bulawayo. He was severely tortured on various occasions.

He died of kidney failure in August 2016 at the age of 54.

“We dare not waver. We dare not falter. Comrade Godfrey has left us, but his work is unfinished. We carry his spirit forward, with his humility, his courage, and his enduring hope that a more just world can be.” – Right2Know Campaign

Read more here.

Phiri is featured in the 2017 Champions for the Right to Know Calendar.