Tawanda Kanhema is a student at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Kanhema’s stories have appeared in The Times (of London), The Sunday Times, ITN Channel 4 News (UK), The Statesman (Ghana), Rosnor Energo (Russia) among other international publications.

While working in Namibia, Kanhema researched and published reports on the rapid growth in Chinese and Russian investment in Africa’s mining and energy sectors, with specific focus on upstream and downstream Sino-Russian activities in oil and gas, uranium, precious metals, rare earths and medium scale investment in civil engineering.

Kanhema’s stories on uranium mining and nuclear energy in Africa have been cited by the Washington based Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Project on Nuclear Issues, which was conducted by the the center’s Nuclear Scholars Initiative. See the report here: http://csis.org/images/stories/poni/090108_2008_nuclear_scholars_text.pdf.

In the past 12 years, Kanhema has done a number of investigative stories for leading publications, covering immigration in Southern Africa, human trafficking in the Great Lakes region, money laundering, drug trafficking, mineral smuggling, illicit trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs), and human rights.

Kanhema wrote extensively on the social and economic impact of the discovery and illegal mining of alluvial diamonds in Marange district in eastern Zimbabwe on the border with Mozambique.

Since May 2006, when industrial diamonds were discovered in Zimbabwe,a sub-economy run by senior politicians, errant police and army officials, businessmen and dealers emerged, perfecting the art of mineral smuggling and leaving very little room for official exploitation of diamonds. Kanhema has worked in Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Botswana as the Zimbabwe Bureau Chief of The Southern Times, a Namibian based regional weekly.

Worked as News Editor for for Informante, a Namibian investigative weekly newspaper and is involved in independent research and production of news documentaries on a wide range of subjects including money laundering and mineral smuggling throughout southern Africa.