27 Facts About Mike Auret

Michael Theodore Hayes Auret was a Zimbabwean farmer, politician, and activist.

Mike Auret served as a member of Parliament for Harare Central from 2000 to 2003, when he resigned and emigrated to Ireland.

Mike Auret took up cattle farming in Mberengwa from 1966 to 1978, after which he joined the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.

Mike Auret returned to the independent Zimbabwe in 1980 and resumed work with the CCJP.

Michael Theodore Hayes Mike Auret was born on 14 December 1936 in Umtali, Southern Rhodesia.

Mike 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.

Mike Auret initially planned to become a Catholic priest until he met and married his wife, Diana Doherty, in 1958.

Mike Auret resigned as a captain in 1966, shortly after Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

In 1974, Mike Auret unsuccessfully ran for Parliament for the Bulawayo District constituency.

In 1978, Mike Auret abandoned farming and began working for the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia, a human rights organization putting him at odds with the government.

Mike Auret was motivated by a desire to expose war atrocities by Rhodesian forces, who had tortured some of his farm workers.

Mike Auret was in Rome with two Rhodesian bishops on a CCJP trip to meet Pope John Paul II, and was advised not to return to Rhodesia.

Mike Auret returned to Zimbabwe soon after the 1980 general election that determined the country's first government and Parliament.

Mike Auret became chairman of the renamed Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, and began documenting atrocities committed by Zimbabwean forces during the Gukurahundi massacres in the Matabeleland region.

Mike Auret arranged a 16 March 1983 meeting at State House in Harare between himself, a delegation of Catholic bishops, and Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, in an effort to stop the killings.

On 5 June 1986, Mike Auret was detained by police, along with CCJP director Nicholas Ndebele.

At a press conference in Harare the next day, Mike Auret thanked the prime minister and said he believed he and Ndebele had been detained because the home affairs minister, Enos Nkala, suspected the CCJP of providing information about human rights in Zimbabwe to Amnesty International, a London-based watchdog organization.

Mike Auret added that the CCJP had met with Nkala in December 1985 to deny the allegations, but that he did not think Nkala believed them.

Mike Auret served as chairman of the CCJP until 1990, after which he became the organization's director.

Mike Auret joined the National Constituent Assembly when it was established in 1997, and served as its first vice chairman under Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mike Auret joined the newly formed Movement for Democratic Change in 1999, and successfully stood as the party's candidate in the June 2000 parliamentary election for Harare Central.

Amid escalating political violence and reportedly due to ill health, Mike Auret resigned his seat in Parliament on 27 February 2003.

Mike Auret emigrated to Cape Town, South Africa, and then Ireland, where he settled in County Offaly and worked for the Catholic Church.

Mike Auret 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.

Mike Auret died at his home in Cloghan, County Offaly, Ireland, on 10 April 2020.

Mike Auret was married to his wife, Diana, for 63 years.

Mike Auret's inspirations included Pope John Paul II, Pope Francis, and Fr.