During the 1980s, he led the organizations effort's to document and put and end to the Gukurahundi massacres, perpetrated in Matabeleland by forces directed by Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's government.
Amid escalating political violence and reportedly due to ill health, he resigned in 2003 and emigrated, first to Cape Town, South Africa, and then to County Offaly, Ireland, where he remained until his death in 2020.
[4] Auret began his education at a Dominican convent school in Umtali, and then studied from 1947 to 1955 at the Jesuit-run St. George's College in the capital, Salisbury, where he father had been one of the first students in 1898.
[1][2][4] In the leadup to the 1969 constitutional referendum, Auret campaigned against the adoption of a republican form of government that would end Rhodesia's ties to the British monarchy.
"[8] In 1978, Auret abandoned farming and began working for the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia (CCJP), a human rights organization putting him at odds with the government.
[2][5][7] Auret was in Rome with two Rhodesian bishops on a CCJP trip to meet Pope John Paul II, and was advised not to return to Rhodesia.
[2] Later that year, negotiations did occur, resulting in the Lancaster House Agreement, which ended the war and set the stage for Rhodesia's reconstitution as the internationally recognized, independent Zimbabwe.
[2] He became chairman of the renamed Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, and began documenting atrocities committed by Zimbabwean forces during the Gukurahundi massacres in the Matabeleland region.
[2][3][6] Auret arranged a 16 March 1983 meeting at State House in Harare between himself, a delegation of Catholic bishops, and Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, in an effort to stop the killings.
[2][5][9] The report, published jointly by the CCJP and Legal Resources Foundation and presented by Auret to Mugabe, was entitled "Breaking the Silence: Building True Peace.
[2][4] It did not make much of an impact in Zimbabwe at the time, but was sent to South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper, which reported on it and published a copy online.
[6][7][12] He joined the newly formed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999, and successfully stood as the party's candidate in the June 2000 parliamentary election for Harare Central.
In February 2001, Auret was warned by a colleague with connections to ZANU–PF that leaders within the ruling party were planning to "take out" a prominent white MDC member by the end of the month.
Coltart said he had been received information from three sources, including Clive Puzey, an MDC colleague with a contact in the Central Intelligence Organisation, that he—not Auret—was the target.
[14] Amid escalating political violence and reportedly due to ill health, Auret resigned his seat in Parliament on 27 February 2003.
[17] In a statement posted on its official Facebook page, the Movement for Democratic Change called Auret a "hero and a patriot," and gave its condolences to his family.
[12] Senator David Coltart, who had worked with Auret on the CCJP's Gukurahundi investigations, stated, "If there ever was a true Zimbabwean hero, it was Mike.