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Didymus Mutasa
Didymus Noel Edwin Mutasa (born 27 July 1935) is a Zimbabwean politician who served as Zimbabwe's Speaker of Parliament from 1980 to 1990. Subsequently, he held various ministerial posts working under President Robert Mugabe in the President's Office. He was Minister of State for Presidential Affairs from 2009 to 2014 and also served as ZANU-PF's Secretary for Administration.
Didymus Mutasa was born in 1935 in Rusape, a town close to the Zimbabwe/Mozambique border in Africa. He was the sixth child of a devout Christian couple. He did his primary and secondary school at St Faith's, an Anglican Mission in Rusape.
Mutasa was a student of Fircroft College of Adult Education in Birmingham, UK, where he attended the Access to Higher Education Course. He studied at Birmingham University on a British Council scholarship. Mutasa was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Social Science (DSocSc) by the University of Birmingham in 1990.
Before Zimbabwean independence, he was chairman of the Cold Comfort Farm society, a non-racial co-operative community near Salisbury (as it then was). This was located on a farm formerly belonging to Lord Acton. It was promoted by Guy and Molly Clutton-Brock and others. Mutasa was detained for two years without trial and the Clutton-Brocks were exiled. At independence Mutasa seized Cold Comfort Farm for himself.
Following independence, Mutasa was Zimbabwe's first Speaker of Parliament from 1980 to 1990. He has served as the Member of Parliament for Makoni North and as a member of the ZANU-PF Politburo; he is the party's Secretary for Administration and has also served as its Secretary for External Affairs.
In April 1998, Mutasa, in defending President Robert Mugabe, said that if Mugabe were pressed to step down, then the entire Cabinet and Politburo should step down along with him, because, in Mutasa's view, if Mugabe had truly "stayed for too long and misgoverned", then those who had governed with him, "including those who are calling on Mugabe to step down", must have done so as well. In 2002, he controversially said that it would be a good thing if the population were halved: "We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who supported the liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra people."
He was appointed as Minister of Special Affairs in the President's Office in charge of the Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies Programme on 9 February 2004; he was then appointed as State Security Minister in mid-April 2005, following the March 2005 parliamentary election, later Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement in the President's Office.
In the March 2008 parliamentary election, Mutasa was nominated by ZANU-PF as its candidate for the House of Assembly seat from Headlands constituency in Manicaland. He won the seat with 7,257 votes against 4,235 for Fambirayi Tsimba of the Movement for Democratic Change, according to official results.
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Didymus Mutasa
Didymus Noel Edwin Mutasa (born 27 July 1935) is a Zimbabwean politician who served as Zimbabwe's Speaker of Parliament from 1980 to 1990. Subsequently, he held various ministerial posts working under President Robert Mugabe in the President's Office. He was Minister of State for Presidential Affairs from 2009 to 2014 and also served as ZANU-PF's Secretary for Administration.
Didymus Mutasa was born in 1935 in Rusape, a town close to the Zimbabwe/Mozambique border in Africa. He was the sixth child of a devout Christian couple. He did his primary and secondary school at St Faith's, an Anglican Mission in Rusape.
Mutasa was a student of Fircroft College of Adult Education in Birmingham, UK, where he attended the Access to Higher Education Course. He studied at Birmingham University on a British Council scholarship. Mutasa was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Social Science (DSocSc) by the University of Birmingham in 1990.
Before Zimbabwean independence, he was chairman of the Cold Comfort Farm society, a non-racial co-operative community near Salisbury (as it then was). This was located on a farm formerly belonging to Lord Acton. It was promoted by Guy and Molly Clutton-Brock and others. Mutasa was detained for two years without trial and the Clutton-Brocks were exiled. At independence Mutasa seized Cold Comfort Farm for himself.
Following independence, Mutasa was Zimbabwe's first Speaker of Parliament from 1980 to 1990. He has served as the Member of Parliament for Makoni North and as a member of the ZANU-PF Politburo; he is the party's Secretary for Administration and has also served as its Secretary for External Affairs.
In April 1998, Mutasa, in defending President Robert Mugabe, said that if Mugabe were pressed to step down, then the entire Cabinet and Politburo should step down along with him, because, in Mutasa's view, if Mugabe had truly "stayed for too long and misgoverned", then those who had governed with him, "including those who are calling on Mugabe to step down", must have done so as well. In 2002, he controversially said that it would be a good thing if the population were halved: "We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who supported the liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra people."
He was appointed as Minister of Special Affairs in the President's Office in charge of the Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies Programme on 9 February 2004; he was then appointed as State Security Minister in mid-April 2005, following the March 2005 parliamentary election, later Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement in the President's Office.
In the March 2008 parliamentary election, Mutasa was nominated by ZANU-PF as its candidate for the House of Assembly seat from Headlands constituency in Manicaland. He won the seat with 7,257 votes against 4,235 for Fambirayi Tsimba of the Movement for Democratic Change, according to official results.