A ZIMBABWEAN pro-democracy activist who was jailed said gaining a university scholarship for refugees in Britain gave him “hope in a hopeless place.”

Makomborero Haruzivishe began studying at the University of Zimbabwe in 2011, but his activism on education rights and corruption led to 37 arrests, a university ban, torture, imprisonment and being shot at.

He is now studying at the University of Kent, two years after fleeing his home in the middle of the night to South Africa.

“Leaving Zimbabwe, it was painful,” the aspiring barrister said.

“I couldn’t afford to say goodbye to my parents, to my siblings, to everyone.”

After receiving threats from the Zimbabwean government while visiting London, he applied for asylum in February 2023.

He is one of 13 sanctuary scholars at the university which aims to help those seeking refuge in Britain access higher education.

Mr Haruzivishe hopes one day to return to Zimbabwe, saying: “It’s our generation that needs to rewire the social order and economic order there.

“I can tell you the pain of being a refugee, how much I yearned to just go back home, be with my parents, with my siblings — it is not a choice.”