"Masiyiwa Fled From Zimbabwe Aged 7" - Media

There have been reports claiming that Zimbabwean-born telecoms tycoon, Strive Masiyiwa, “fled civil unrest in his homeland at the age of seven (7).”

It is alleged that the 60-year-old London-based billionaire who was recently named in The Sunday Times Rich List as Britain’s first black billionaire would later come back to Zimbabwe where he worked in the telecoms industry. The Sunday Times report:

He was born in the country – now modern-day Zimbabwe – in 1961. When he was aged 7 his parents fled the country amid the unrest after Ian Smith’s government declared independence from Britain.

We present below some information on Strive Masiyiwa:

• He was born in 1961 in Zimbabwe.
• Masiyiwa family moved to Zambia when Strive was 7 years old and settled in a town called Kitwe.
• By the time he was 12 years his parents could afford to provide him with a coveted European education, he was sent to a private school in Edinburgh Scotland.
• After graduation in 1978, he went back to his country of birth, intending to join the anti-government guerilla forces to liberate Zimbabwe from colonial rule.
• Strive was advised by senior officers that they were about to win the war and needed people like him to help build the country.
• He returned to school in Britain, graduating with a degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Wales in 1983. He worked briefly in the computer Industry in Cambridge England but soon returned to Zimbabwe in 1984.
• Upon his return, Masiyiwa worked for Zimbabwe Posts and Telecommunications Corporation from 1984 to 1988 as senior engineer, then principal engineer.
• In 1998, he launched a mobile phone network, Econet Wireless after a 5-year legal battle with the government then led by the late Robert Mugabe that was refusing to give him a license to operate his business.

• Strive Masiyiwa Named The UK’s First Black Billionaire
• Masiyiwa Becomes Zimbabwe’s First Billionaire
• Strive Masiyiwa Ranked World’s 11th Richest Black Person
• Masiyiwa Reveals How Patronage & Sheer Incompetence Destroyed Ziscosteel
• Netflix Adds Strive Masiyiwa To Board Of Directors
• Masiyiwa Donates 120 000 Test Kits And Border Laboratories To Zimbabwe
• Russian Billionaire Sees Various Opportunities In Zimbabwe
• US Billionaire Flies Into Chiredzi

More: Pindula Masiyiwa Biography; The Sunday Times