Online Reporter
Blessings Chidakwa
Herald Reporter
IN a city buzzing with policies and public service, Harare councillor George Mujajati always walks into council chambers with more than just a municipal budget on his mind, he will also be thinking about his next novel.
Yes, this Harare City councillor is no ordinary public official.
By day he helps chart the city’s future, and by night, he crafts stories so vivid they have crossed borders literally.
One of his books titled, “Fear Not, My Brother”, has just been adopted as a set book for junior secondary students in Namibia.
Learners in Grades 8 and 9 are now turning the pages of a Zimbabwean councillor’s imagination, courtesy of the Namibian Institute of Educational Development (NIED).
Back home, Mujajati is already a household name in Zimbabwean literature circles.
His books “The Wretched Ones”, “The Sun Will Rise Again” and “The Rain of My Blood” (in classrooms since 2021) are set texts for Ordinary and Advanced Level literature.
Add to that “Zinyekenyeke: Mitambo Miviri”, “Victory” and “Fear Not, My Brother” and you begin to wonder if the man ever sleeps. “I started writing back in college,” Mujajati said. “It is my calling.”
And his calling rings loud even amid the chaos of council duties, community meetings and family responsibilities.
He is a husband, a father, a lecturer in environmental science at Morgan Zintec College and somehow still finds the time to fill pages with compelling prose.
“People think councillors do nothing beyond slogans,” he said. “But I wear many hats and writing is the biggest one.”
The rewards? Beyond the passion and respect the craft brings, Mujajati said there is also a decent pay check at least once your work hits the curriculum.
“When your novel becomes a set book, the market is guaranteed. Yes, there is piracy, but overall, it pays.”
And he is not stopping anytime soon. When asked what keeps him going, Mujajati said: “I hope my children or grandchildren take up the pen. There is power in storytelling.”
Whether it is in the council chambers or the classrooms of Windhoek, Mujajati is proof that literature knows no borders.
