Mike Auret

Michael Theodore Hayes Auret (14 December 1936 – 10 April 2020) was a Zimbabwean farmer, politician, and activist. A devout Catholic, he served as chairman and later director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (CCJP) from 1978 until 1999. He also served as a member of Parliament for Harare Central from 2000 to 2003, when he resigned and emigrated to Ireland.

Born in Mutare, Southern Rhodesia, and raised in the Mberengwa area, Auret came from a family of farmers. After leaving St. George's College in 1955, he served in the armies of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and Southern Rhodesia for ten years. He took up cattle farming in Mberengwa from 1966 to 1978, after which he joined the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. Soon after, he received a conscription notice from the Rhodesian Security Forces and rather than enlisting, fled with his family to the United Kingdom. He returned to the independent Zimbabwe in 1980 and resumed work with the CCJP. During the 1980s, he led the organization's efforts to document and put an end to the Gukurahundi massacres, perpetrated in Matabeleland by forces directed by Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's government.

Auret left the commission in 1999 and became involved in the political opposition to Mugabe and his ruling ZANU–PF party. In 2000, he was elected to Parliament for the newly formed Movement for Democratic Change. Amid escalating political violence and reportedly due to ill health, he resigned in 2003 and emigrated, first to Cape Town, South Africa, and then to County Offaly, Ireland, where he remained until his death in 2020.

Early life and military service

Michael Theodore Hayes Auret was born on 14 December 1936 in Umtali, Southern Rhodesia. The descendant of Huguenot settlers in South Africa, he came from a family of farmers who had settled in eastern Southern Rhodesia. Auret began his education at a Dominican convent school in Umtali, and then studied from 1947 to 1955 at the Jesuit-run St. George's College in the capital, Salisbury, where he father had been one of the first students in 1898. In 1956, he joined the army of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and was stationed in Ndola, Northern Rhodesia. Representing the moderate Rhodesia Party, he lost with 22.5 percent of the vote to the incumbent MP, Alec Moseley of the Rhodesian Front, who received 77.5 percent of the 1,613 votes cast. In early 1977, during the Rhodesian Bush War, black guerrillas burned down the house of Auret's assistant farm manager, but spared Auret's home and his farm equipment. The guerrillas left two notes, one of which said, "We don't hate whites. We left your property because you are a friend of the people." The report, published jointly by the CCJP and Legal Resources Foundation and presented by Auret to Mugabe, was entitled "Breaking the Silence: Building True Peace." They were released later that day after Auret's wife, Diana, phoned Prime Minister Mugabe. Auret retired from the CCJP in 1999. He joined the newly formed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999, and successfully stood as the party's candidate in the June 2000 parliamentary election for Harare Central. He won overwhelmingly with 14,207 votes, defeating former deputy mayor of Harare, Winston Dzawo of ZANU–PF, who received 3,620 votes, as well as two minor candidates.

In February 2001, Auret was warned by a colleague with connections to ZANU–PF that leaders within the ruling party were planning to "take out" a prominent white MDC member by the end of the month. The MDC had three white parliamentarians at the time, Auret, David Coltart, and Trudy Stevenson. He emigrated to Cape Town, South Africa, and then Ireland, where he settled in County Offaly and worked for the Catholic Church. He wrote a book, From Liberator to Dictator: An Insider's Account of Robert Mugabe's Descent into Tyranny, published in 2009, in which he described how he misjudged Mugabe's intentions at independence in 1980. Due to Health Service Executive directives against public gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, his funeral was held privately. A statement by Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference read, "The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe learned with sadness of the death of Mr Michael Auret... he excelled in promoting human rights, justice and peace in Zimbabwe." He also owned a vacation property near Nyanga. After emigrating to Ireland, he lived in the town of Cloghan, County Offaly, until his death.