Dear Wicknell,
Thank you for your generous words about my professional work and for your kind acknowledgment of my wife. I appreciate your recognition of the dedication with which I discharged the briefs entrusted to me.
My wife and I have carefully considered your announcement and must respectfully decline the vehicle and both cash gifts.
For clarity, we last spoke in June 2024, and I have undertaken no professional work for you since then. The historical work to which your tribute refers was performed in my professional capacity and paid for in full. My remuneration was for services actually rendered.
Your announcement came as a complete surprise, without prior notice or discussion. Given the distance that has developed between us since our last conversation, the substantial nature of the gifts, and their express connection to past professional services, I must approach this gesture with particular care.
Zimbabwe’s Legal Practitioners’ Code of Conduct requires us to preserve our integrity, safeguard our professional independence and maintain public confidence in the profession. The International Bar Association’s principles and the International Commission of Jurists’ writings likewise emphasise that a lawyer’s professional judgment must remain independent and free from conflicting personal interests.
Applying those standards to these circumstances, I consider it necessary to decline benefits that could reasonably create a perception of personal financial obligation extending beyond a concluded and fully remunerated professional engagement. My wife and I attach great importance to preserving both our professional standing and public confidence in our independence.
The independence reflected in your generous tribute is a responsibility I must continue to uphold.
Please receive our decision in the respectful spirit in which it is conveyed. We appreciate the generosity expressed and your acknowledgment of my past work. Our decision is nevertheless firm: we will not accept the vehicle or either of the cash gifts.
We wish you well and trust that you will understand and respect our position.
Advocate Dr Lewis Uriri
I think my girlfriend should come live with me full-time. 🥺
This thing of her visiting me and leaving isn’t working anymore. She will visit her family.
My advice to young Zimbabwean people from the bottom of my heart speaking from experience is that if you can leave the country, PLEASE LEAVE NOW!
Don’t waste your youthful days doing nothing when people of your age are progressing elsewhere.
I left Zimbabwe at 23 in 1994 and was able to build the foundation to the life I live today in Britain from my education to my award winning professional career.
I would never have done it in Zimbabwe with only ONE TV station owned by the Government and a collapsed economy run by corrupt politicians.
I secured visas for all my young family members in the past 20 years so that they could have the same head-start I got in life because I knew that they would grow old with nothing to their name if they stayed in Zimbabwe.
Some have now moved from Britain to Australia because they had an opportunity to build their lives in a country where things worked.
The politicians in Zimbabwe have no viable plan for you, you either choose propaganda or you choose to build yourself.
Zimbabwe is a broken nation with no opportunities for young people except for those of a criminal type or those linked to political elites.
I am 52 years old, there are people of my age who have never had a title deed in their name, there are people of my age who have never been on holiday, the same will happen to you if you stick around doing nothing hoping for a miracle to happen.
There are many opportunities for young people across the world, start as a carer in Britain and build yourself up.
Don’t say that nobody didn’t tell you!
Life is one big road with loads of signs, you choose which sign to follow.
To those who have left the country, learn something from my journey, DON’T forget those that you left behind.
Sending them money to buy bread is a sign of responsibility, but it won’t change their lives, you will end up resenting them because they will become an irritating financial burden to you.
Help them get out!
I want to end by saying this, politicians earn their living by selling dreams, it is up to you whether you want to live in Lala-Land or you want to do something about your sorry circumstances.
Zimbabwe is a mess, it will be a mess for a long time unless a miracle happens or someone fearless emerges to take on the corrupt elites and bring revolutionary change.
The current political actors have no ability to change anything or to help you change your lives.
LEAVE and if you do, remember those that you left behind.
RETWET if you agree with this message so that others can see it too!