The Sunday Mail
Don Makanyanga
NOREST Isaac is used to pushing boundaries.
Throughout his life, he has lived through devastating tragedies, but he has not let misfortunes hold his dreams back.
At the age of four, Mr Isaac was diagnosed with a serious eye tumour that caused both his eyes to be removed.
A year later, his father passed away, living his unemployed mother to fend for him and his younger sibling.
His mother, who is now late, was advised against sending a blind child through school, counsel which she dismissed off hand.
“I was diagnosed with a tumour on my left eye when I was three years old,” Isaac (26) told The Sunday Mail.
“The doctors advised that I should have both of my eyes plucked out.”
But Mr Isaac had a dream, he wanted to be a lawyer.
Despite suffering this misfortune at a tender age, his unstinting belief in breaking barriers kept him going.
“My father passed away when I was four years old.
“Growing up as the first born child who was being raised by an unemployed widow was not a bed of roses.
“My mother faced many challenges, which in turn affected me as well.
“Some people advised her that I was not supposed to be sent to school because I was blind.
“They did not believe in the abilities of blind people.
“They argued that sending a visually impaired child through school was a waste of time and resources because eventually I was going to achieve nothing.
“My mother faced ridicule, but I am happy that she insisted that I go to school.”
Because of the lack of study material for visually impaired pupils, Mr Isaac faced many challenges at school.
He said he had to befriend juniors to help him study when he was attending Murehwa High School.
His younger friends would recite the reading material to him, which was no easy task.
“The problem blind people face is that there is insufficient academic material for the visually-impaired, Braille books are a challenge both at primary and secondary school,” Isaac said.
Despite these challenges, he scored 15 points at Advanced Level and was accorded the best national Divinity student award and the overall best student at the Mashonaland East student awards.
He later won a scholarship to attend university.
Mr Isaac studied law and graduated with a second upper-class degree.
Today, he is a qualified lawyer and is pursuing a Masters in Constitutional and Human Rights Law with the Midlands State University.
Following his graduation, Mr Isaac was employed as a legal officer at the Legal Directorate under the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
He was soon faced with another challenge when he started practising — very few people wanted to be represented by a visually impaired lawyer.
“When I started practising at the start of 2019, people did not trust me because of my disability.
“But I am glad that people are now warming up and have started gaining my confidence.”
As fate would have it, his job entails representing the less-privileged.
“As a State department, our work is to represent indigents — those that cannot afford lawyers.
“Our work encompasses all cases from civil to criminal.
“Not to be boastful, but I hardly lose cases,” Mr Isaac said with a grin.
He said his secret in court is thorough research.
“I do a lot of research before I attend court.
“So when you research very well and when you prepare for a case, usually you are bound to be successful. That is why I hardly lose cases.”
Isaac works closely with his wife, Tendai Kaseke, who is his personal assistant.
“My job involves roaming in between courts, so I have enlisted the services of my wife who is my assistant,” he said.
The immensely religious Harare lawyer attributes his success to God.
Isaac says his late mother instilled in him the virtues of hard work and perseverance.
“I believe in God and I believe that everything that I have done this far is all because God is able.
“God takes those people who are said to be disabled and makes them able.
“Because He is God, those who are said to be underprivileged, He makes them very privileged and I think I am one of those people.”
