The Honourable Ambassador
Amos Midzi
MP
Minister of Mines and Mining Development of Zimbabwe
In office
February 2004 – January 2009
PresidentRobert Mugabe
Preceded byEdward Chindori-Chininga
Succeeded byObert Mpofu
Personal details
Born(1952-07-04)4 July 1952
Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now Zambia)
Died9 June 2015(2015-06-09) (aged 62)
Marirangwe, Zimbabwe
Political partyZimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front

Amos Bernard Muvengwa Midzi (4 July 1952 – 9 June 2015) was a Zimbabwean politician who served in the Cabinet successively as Minister of Energy and Power Development and Minister of Mines and Mining Development from 2002 to 2009.

Political career

He served as Zimbabwe Ambassador to Cuba from 1987 to 1993.[1] Later, Midzi was appointed as Ambassador to the United States in 1993, which he served until 1997, before he was a member of the ZANU-PF politburo.[2] He ran as the ZANU-PF candidate for Mayor of Harare, the capital, in March 2002, but was defeated by Elias Mudzuri of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Midzi received 56,796 votes against 262,275 votes for Mudzuri.[3] On 25 August 2002 he was appointed as Minister of Energy and Power Development;[4][5] subsequently he was appointed as Minister of Mines and Mining Development on 9 February 2004.[6] He has also served as ZANU-PF Chairman for Harare.[7] He was placed on the United States sanctions list in 2003 and remained there until his death.[8]

Midzi was nominated as ZANU-PF's candidate for the House of Assembly seat from Epworth, a suburb of Harare, in the March 2008 parliamentary election.[9] He was defeated by the MDC's Jembere Elias, receiving 4,758 votes against 6,220 votes for Elias.[10]

The Herald reported on 3 January 2009 that Midzi had been dismissed from the Cabinet earlier in the week, along with 11 other ministers, because he no longer held any seat in Parliament.[11]

Reports of Midzi's death on 9 June 2015 were immediately labelled as suicide.[12]

On 9 June 2015, following Midzi's death, it was also reported that foul play was suspected amid reports that his car keys were missing.[13] Later in June 2015, a post-mortem conducted on his body revealed that he had been poisoned and was buried at Glen Forest Memorial Park.[14]

References

  1. ^ "5 Facts About Amos Midzi You Probably Didn't Know…". Newsvyb. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  2. ^ List of Zimbabwean ambassadors to the United States, U.S. Department of State website.
  3. ^ "MDC takes Harare and Chitungwiza" Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine, SADOCC, March 15, 2002.
  4. ^ "Zimbabwe's cabinet after the shuffle", Sapa-AFP (IOL), August 25, 2002.
  5. ^ "ZIMBABWE: New government without Makoni" Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine, SADOCC, August 25, 2002.
  6. ^ "Mugabe rewards loyalists in new Cabinet", New Zimbabwe (zimbabwesituation.com), February 9, 2004.
  7. ^ Cris Chinaka, "'Listen to our problems, Mr Mugabe'", Reuters (IOL), March 13, 2005.
  8. ^ Blocking property of persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.
  9. ^ "Zimbabwe: Zanu-PF Names Poll Candidates", The Herald (allAfrica.com), February 15, 2008.
  10. ^ "Zimbabwe election results 2008" Archived April 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Newzimbabwe.com, April 2, 2008.
  11. ^ "Losing Ministers Axed", The Herald (allAfrica.com), January 3, 2009.
  12. ^ "Ambassador Amos Midzi found dead" Archived 2015-06-11 at the Wayback Machine, New Zimbabwe, June 9, 2015.
  13. ^ ""Fired Midzi dies, foul play suspected"". My Zimbabwe News. 9 June 2015.
  14. ^ "Amos Midi died of poisoning: Autopsy". The Herald. 11 June 2015.
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