Ministry overview | |
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Formed | May 1980 |
Jurisdiction | Government of Zimbabwe |
Headquarters | Harare |
Minister responsible |
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Deputy Ministers responsible |
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Child agencies |
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The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) is a government ministry responsible for agriculture in Zimbabwe, including the management of agricultural land use, but not land reform. Dr Anxious Jongwe Masuka is the incumbent Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, having been appointed on 14 August 2020. [1] Currently, the deputy ministers are Douglas Karoro and Vangelis Haritatos. The ministry is located in Harare.
The ministry oversees:
State corporations under the direction of the Ministry of Agriculture include: [2]
Minister | Start of term | End of term |
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Denis Norman | May 1980 | July 1985 |
Moven Mahachi [3] | 1985 | 1988 |
David Karimanzira | 1987/1988 | 1990 |
Witness Mangwende | 1 January 1991 | 22 December 1994 |
Kumbirai Kangai | 1994 | 2000 |
Joseph Made | 2000 | 2007 |
Rugare Gumbo | 2007 | 2009 |
Sylvester Nguni (acting) | 2009 | 2009 |
Joseph Made | 13 February 2009 | 27 November 2017 |
Perrance Shiri [4] [5] | 30 November 2017 | 27 July 2020 |
Anxious Jongwe Masuka [6] | 14 August 2020 | Incumbent |
Land reform in Zimbabwe officially began in 1980 with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement, as an effort to more equitably distribute land between black subsistence farmers and white Zimbabweans of European ancestry, who had traditionally enjoyed superior political and economic status. The programme's stated targets were intended to alter the ethnic balance of land ownership.
Perrance Shiri was a retired Zimbabwean air officer and government official who served as Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe from 1 December 2017 until his death on 29 July 2020. He was the commander of the Air Force of Zimbabwe and member of the Joint Operations Command which exerts day-by-day control over Zimbabwe's government.
Joram Macdonald Gumbo is a Zimbabwean politician, member of parliament, former member of the Pan-African Parliament from Zimbabwe, and former cabinet minister. He is a member of the Zanu-PF party.
Saviour Kasukuwere is a Zimbabwean politician who served in the government of Zimbabwe as Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and National Housing between October and November 2017. He was also the ZANU–PF party's national political commissar until December 2017. Before that he was Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, and Minister of the Environment, Water and Climate. In October 2020, the Zimbabwe government sought Kasukuwere's extradition after issuing a warrant for his arrest. It was revealed that Kasukuwere was among loyalists of former President Robert Mugabe who fled to South Africa before their criminal trials could be completed.
Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is a Zimbabwean politician who has served as President of Zimbabwe since 24 November 2017. A member of ZANU–PF and a longtime ally of former President Robert Mugabe, he held a series of cabinet portfolios and was Mugabe's Vice-President until November 2017, when he was dismissed before coming to power in a coup d'état. He secured his first full term as president in the disputed 2018 general election.
Patrick Antony Chinamasa is a Zimbabwean politician who served in the government of Zimbabwe as the minister of various cabinet ministries. Previously he served as the Minister of Finance and Investment Promotion and the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
Obert Moses Mpofu is a Zimbabwean politician, who served as Minister of Home Affairs from 2017 to September 2018. Previously he was Minister of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion; Minister of Industry and International Trade; Minister of Mines and Mining Development; and Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development. The Cabinet of Zimbabwe was later dissolved on 27 November 2017. He was reappointed as Minister of Home Affairs in Mnangagwa's first cabinet on 30 November 2017. The Culture portfolio was added to his ministry. Mpofu was later removed from the Zimbabwe cabinet in September 2018.
The Cabinet of Zimbabwe is the executive body that forms the government of Zimbabwe together with the President of Zimbabwe. The Cabinet is composed of the President, the Vice-Presidents, and ministers appointed by the President. Until 1987, the Cabinet was chaired by the Prime Minister; it is now headed by the President.
Walter Mzembi is a Zimbabwean politician. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry. He was the Member of the House of Assembly for Masvingo South (ZANU-PF). It was announced on November 27, 2017, that Simbarashe Mumbengegwi was now the acting Foreign Minister of Zimbabwe. In October 2020, it was revealed Mzembi was among those who fled to South Africa before their criminal trials could be completed.
Corruption in Zimbabwe has become endemic within its political, private and civil sectors.
Fortune Chasi is a Zimbabwean politician, member of parliament, and formerly served as the country's Minister of Energy and Power Development. Fortune became member of parliament in Zimbabwe for Mazowe South in the 2013 Zimbabwean Parliamentary Elections. Fortune was appointed the Deputy Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs by President Robert Mugabe on 10 September 2013.
In November 2017, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was removed as president and party leader of ZANU-PF and was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Sibusiso Busi Moyo was a Zimbabwean politician and army Lieutenant general. He was noted for announcing the ousting of Robert Mugabe on national television during the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état. He went on to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in the cabinet of Emmerson Mnangagwa from November 2017 until his death.
Patrick Zhuwao is a Zimbabwean businessman, farmer, and politician. He served as Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare between October and November 2017. He was expelled from the ruling ZANU–PF party during the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état.
Prisca Mupfumira, or Priscah Mupfumira, is a Zimbabwean politician and former government minister under President Robert Mugabe. When the President was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, she was the first serving ZANU–PF minister to be arrested for corruption.
Ziyambi Ziyambi is Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. He has held the post as a member of Zanu-PF in the Emmerson Mnangagwa government since 2018.
Vangelis Peter Haritatos is a Zimbabwean businessman and politician who has served as Deputy Minister for Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement and a Member of the National Assembly of Zimbabwe for Muzvezve since 2018. Haritatos is a member of the ruling ZANU–PF and his father, Peter Haritatos, was previously an MP for the same party.
David Colville Smith was a farmer and politician in Rhodesia and its successor states, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. He served in the cabinet of Rhodesia as Minister of Agriculture from 1968 to 1976, Minister of Finance from 1976 to 1979, and Minister of Commerce and Industry from 1978 to 1979. From 1976 to 1979, he also served Deputy Prime Minister of Rhodesia. He continued to serve as Minister of Finance in the government of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979. In 1980, he was appointed Minister of Trade and Commerce of the newly independent Zimbabwe, one of two whites included in the cabinet of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.
Relations between the UK and Zimbabwe have been complex since the latter's independence in 1980. The territory of modern Zimbabwe had been colonised by the British South Africa Company in 1890, with the Pioneer Column raising the Union Jack over Fort Salisbury and formally establishing company, and by extension, British, rule over the territory. In 1920 Rhodesia, as the land had been called by the company in honour of their founder, Cecil Rhodes, was brought under jurisdiction of the Crown as the colony of Southern Rhodesia. Southern Rhodesia over the decades following its establishment would slowly be populated by large numbers of Europeans emigrants who came to form a considerable diaspora, largely consisting of Britons but also smaller groups of Italians, Greeks and Afrikaners. A settler culture that had already existed since the time of company would come to cement fully and the white population began to identify as Rhodesians, often in conjunction with British/Afrikaner/Southern European identities of their ancestors. Southern Rhodesia would go on to participate heavily in both the First and Second wars, providing soldiers and military equipment to the British war effort. During the years after the war, the relationship between Britain and Southern Rhodesia became increasingly strained. The UK had opted to decolonise Africa and had adopted a firm policy of no independence before majority rule, which deeply upset the white establishment of the colony, in particular the radical Rhodesian Front party led by Winston Field and later, Ian Smith. Relations between the British Government and the colonial Southern Rhodesian government deteriorated for much of the early 1960s and negotiations between the two dragged on with little to no success. Eventually, relations broke down entirely and Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from Britain. The move was met with zero recognition from the international community and the UK government and the illegitimate state was still formally considered under British sovereignty for its roughly 15-year span of existence. For the first 5 years of its proclaimed independence, Rhodesia still declared loyalty to the Queen Elizabeth II as a would-be Commonwealth realm, but this was never recognised by the British monarch who continued to encourage Smith's illegal government to resign. Given her refusal to appoint a Governor-general, from 1965 to 1970 an "Officer Administering the Government" served as the de facto head of state. Rhodesia eventually moved to sever all links with Britain and became a republic with a president in 1970. Throughout the subsequent Rhodesian Bush War between white Rhodesians and black paramilitaries such as ZANU and ZAPU, the UK continued to remain staunchly opposed to the rogue state and extensively sanctioned it, even enforcing blockades using the Royal Navy to cut off Rhodesian oil imports via Portuguese Mozambique. When Rhodesia failed to hold out after 15 years of fighting and came to the negotiating table with the black resistance groups and moderate African nationalist parties, the UK again became directly involved in Rhodesia's affairs. After a brief stint as the nation of Zimbabwe Rhodesia following an Internal Settlement that was denounced by the international community for not being satisfactory enough, the nation transiently reverted to its status as a self-governing British colony before being granted full independence and majority rule as Zimbabwe in 1980 under the landmark Lancaster House Agreement.
Anxious Jongwe Masuka is a Zimbabwean politician and member of the Emmerson Mnangagwa cabinet. He was appointed to oversee the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement in August 2020 after the previous minister Perrance Shiri died.