Obert Moses Mpofu (born 12 October 1951) is a Zimbabwean politician,who served as Minister of Home Affairs from 2017 to September 2018.[1] 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.[2] He was reappointed as Minister of Home Affairs in Mnangagwa's first cabinet on 30 November 2017.[3] The Culture portfolio was added to his ministry. Mpofu was later removed from the Zimbabwe cabinet in September 2018.[4]
Obert Mpofu was a member of the Hwange community,he grew up in Matabeleland North Province in Jambezi Village in the Zambezi Valley of Hwange District. He was the younger brother of Robert Moses Mpofu,a war hero from the Zimbabwe War of Independence.[5] Obert Mpofu also served in the Zimbabwe War of Independence crossing over into Zambia in 1967 to be trained,[5] although he primarily served as a messenger.[6]
He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Delhi,MPS Masters in Policy Studies from the University of Zimbabwe,and a PhD in Policy Studies from Zimbabwe Open University.[7]
Political career
Mpofu was first elected to parliament in 1980 as the Provincial Member for Matabeleland North. He again served in parliament as a non-constituency member from 1987 to 1990. In 1990 he was elected to parliament from Bubi-Umguza where he served until 1999.[6]
In 2000 he was appointed as the Governor of Matabeleland North Province,[6] a post he held until 2008.[8]
At the beginning of 2014,Mpofu was reported to be seeking nomination from ZANU-PF’s Matabeleland North provincial leadership for the position of party Chairman. It was reported that his main rival for the position was the Speaker of the Zimbabwean Parliament,Jacob Mudenda. It is believed that Mpofu was one of the earliest ZPRA guerillas to be trained for the Zimbabwean Liberation War way back in the 1960s.[12]
Ministry of Industry and Trade
Mpofu masterminded the freeze of basic commodities in Zimbabwe in mid-2007. He was appointed by Robert Mugabe to lead the price monitoring regime that was created following the price-freeze.[13] He withdrew operating licenses from abattoirs across the country during the price freeze,a situation that resulted in beef becoming scarce in shops across the country. In early 2008,he initiated the idea of 'people's shops' government run retail shops that would sell products cheaply.
2008 general election
Mpofu was nominated again as the ZANU-PF candidate for the House of Assembly seat from Umguza constituency in the March 2008 parliamentary election.[14] Mpofu was initially endorsed as unopposed,but Mark Mbayiwa challenged this in court and was successful in getting Mpofu's unopposed endorsement overturned.[15]
Campaigning in Umguza,Mpofu singled out Simba Makoni as an agent of western imperialism.[16]
Mpofu won the seat,receiving 7,065 votes and defeating two candidates of the two Movement for Democratic Change factions,Cornelius Mbayiwa (MDC-T) and Edmund Masuku (MDC-M),who respectively received 2,846 and 2,120 votes. He also defeated Mark Mbayiwa,who ran as an independent and received 555 votes.[17]
Minister of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion
Mpofu was Minister of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion from 2015 until 2017.
Minister of Home Affairs
Following the dissolution of the Cabinet of Zimbabwe in 2017,it was announced that Robert Mugabe's successor Emmerson Mnangagwa had allowed only Patrick Chinamasa and Simbarashe Mumbengegwi to remain as acting ministers of Finance and Foreign Affairs respectively until the appointment of a new cabinet.[2] However,Mpofu was appointed as Minister of Home Affairs and Culture in the new cabinet.[20] Mpofu was later removed from the Mnangagwa Cabinet in September 2018.[21]
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Ministers of the Zimbabwean Government of Robert Mugabe