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Rutendo Matinyarare
Rutendo Matinyarare (born 09 June 1976) is a South African-based Zimbabwean businessman, anti-sanctions movement and human rights activist, best known for founding two (2) civil society organisations called Zimbabweans Unite against US War Sanctions (ZUAUWS) and Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement (ZASM); which are leading a fight against illegal unilateral coercive economic sanctions imposed upon Zimbabwean civilians and it’s government by the [https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1158#:~:text=The%20Zimbabwe%20sanctions%20program%20targets,Zimbabwe%2C%20or%20Zimbabwe's%20banking%20sector. United States], United Kingdom, European Union, and their allies’ (Australia and Canada).

He was instrumental in lobbying for the government's [https://www.sadc.int/latest-news/sadc-reiterates-call-removal-sanctions-zimbabwe#:~:text=The%20Southern%20African%20Development%20Community,unilaterally%20punishing%20a%20few%20individuals. current regional] and continental publicity campaign against sanctions, while his proposals to key government officials pushed for the establishment of the Patriotic Act as well as inviting the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur to conduct an analyses on the negative impact of unilateral coercive economic sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe. This action led to the US Congress reaching out to POLAD (Political Actors Dialogue) to discuss doing an impact assessment on the effect of sanctions upon the Zimbabwean citizens.

Matinyarare did not stop there, he wrote a proposal to the Minister of Justice advising him of the risk of Zimbabwe being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which subsequently stopped the FATF blacklisting Zimbabwe. He risked his personal safety and academic career in his pursuit of justice by taking the South African banking system to the High Court of South Africa for executing illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Born in Harare and lived most of his adult life in Johannesburg, South Africa, Rutendo become the first Zimbabwean to publicly challenge the illegality of the sanctions imposed on the Zimbabwean civilians and pushed his government to stop politicising the fight against sanction to make it a legal fight. He has turned the negative sentiment on brand Zimbabwe and made it fashionable to fight for Zimbabwe’s dignity and its brand.

Early Life and Education
Rutendo Matinyarare was born on the 6 June 1976 in Harare, Zimbabwe. First born son of three sons born to David and Elizabeth Matinyarare. He attended his primary education at Frank Johnson primary school, Harare later transferred to Amandas Junior School, in Mazowe and completed his secondary schooling Lord Marlven High school, Harare. After completing his O-levels earned a Marketing Diploma with the London Chamber of Commerce & Industry (United Kingdom). Further obtained a Marketing Graduate Degree from the Institute of Marketing Management (South Africa) as well as the Chartered Marketer Professional Post Grad with Chartered Institute of Marketing (United Kingdom) and finally a certificate in PRINCE2 (Projects In Controlled Environments 2) Practitioner with Ants Project Management Training & Development: Prince2® Foundation & Practitioner.

Career and Business
Matinyarare held various position in different industries such as a Sales Executive for Tyre Treads, a Marketing Assistant at Business Equipment Corporation, Sales Executive at Impexo and a Hotel Trainee Manager at George Hotel. He was also part of a team that opened the twin tower hotels called Emirates Towers for Jumeirah Beach and Resort in Dubai as a Sales & Marketing Consultant.

He then relocated to South Africa in pursuit of a career in television. When he arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa Matinyarare worked as a Television presenter for programmes such as Walk the Plank and Africa Within on SABC Africa, which was a program that allowed him to travel the African continent, showcasing and engaging with the people, places, art, culture and entertainment of Africa, celebrating the African experience, interviewing influential personalities on the continent and telling the Africa stories from the eyes of an African.

In 2007 Matinyarare co-founded a creative and design agency called Frontline Studio. Due to the pressure to keep up with the evolving environments and client needs, he founded Frontline Strat Marketing Consultancy as a CEO and Marketing & Brand Strategist.

It is during this period when his marketing consultancy business was thriving, he realised that he was using his skills and expertise for the wrong purpose. He used his skills and expertise to destroy his own people by selling them things they do not need. He was pushing them to consume rather than to teach them to preserve their resources, build their country and grow their economy. Rutendo as the CEO and Marketing & Brand Strategist at Frontline Strat to repurpose Frontline Strat and use it's expertise to market, reposition, rebrand, and promote Zimbabwe and Africa.

Where is the best place to start than home Zimbabwe. They say charity begins at home – building MaDzimbabwe. The first step was to identify what was the root cause of Zimbabwe’s problems. It became apparent that illegal sanctions imposed by the US and her allies was the core of the destruction of Zimbabwe; its economy, its education, its health system, its infrastructure, its families and its people. A civil society organisation Zimbabwe United against US War Sanctions was born with the purpose to fight the injustice of the illegal sanctions upon the Zimbabwean people and to redeem the image of Zimbabwe.

He did more research on the sanctions and discovered that not only these sanctions are illegal but they are destroying the normal man on the street.

Anti-Sanctions and Human Right Activism
Matinyarare realised that the fight against US war sanctions is a huge fight to take on alone. In 2019, He founded a South African based civil society organisation called Zimbabweans Unite Against US War Sanctions (ZUAUWS). As the Chairman, he campaigned and created awareness of the illegality and negative effects of sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe. He was instrumental in lobbying for the government's currently regional and continental publicity campaign against sanctions, mainly asking the SADC regional leaders to stand with Zimbabwe in support of the removal of sanctions. The SADC regional leaders heed the call. The SADC Anti-Sanctions Day was created and is held annually on the 25th October. While his proposals to key government officials pushed for the establishment of the Patriotic Act.

Between 2019 and 2021 Matinyarare wrote numerous proposals to the government officials lobbying his government to stop making the sanctions fight a political fight and make it a legal fight. Because of the effectiveness of his campaign, he attracted the attention of other like-minded Zimbabwean patriots who wanted to join the fight against US illegal sanctions. These like-minded patriots believed that the name Zimbabweans Unite Against US war Sanctions was too aggressive so they created a new entity called Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement (ZASM) where Matinyarare was appointed Chairman.

Under Matinyarare’s leadership ZASM lodged a court case in the South Africa High Court suing several US and South African banks, together with US President, President of the US senate, Speaker of the House and Treasury Secretary for executing unlawful and unconstitutional sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe. Matinyarare has continued to create awareness, educated, campaign, lobby governments and policy makers to support ZASM in the fight against illegal sanctions against the people of Zimbabwe.