Edward Graham "Eddie" Cross (born 1940), a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Bulawayo South Bulawayo South is a parliamentary constituency of the Zimbabwean National Assembly of Zimbabwe, National Assembly in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The current member of the House of Assembly for Bulawayo South is Raj Modi, a member of ZANU–PF. Notable form ...

, is a

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

an economist and founder member of the mainstream

Movement for Democratic Change Movement for Democratic Change or MDC may refer to: * Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T), the former main opposition party in Zimbabwe ** Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai Congress 2006, the second MDC–T congres ...

party led by

Nelson Chamisa Nelson Chamisa (born 2 February 1978) is a Zimbabwean politician and the current President of the Citizens Coalition For Change. He served as Member of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe for Kuwadzana East, Harare. Chamisa was the MDC Allianc ...

. He is currently the Policy Coordinator General.

Pre-Independence

Cross's career has been mainly in agriculture. He attended

Gwebi College Gwebi College of Agriculture is an agricultural college located near Harare, Zimbabwe. History Formal agricultural education in Southern Rhodesia began in 1930, when an agricultural college opened at Matopos. However, it closed after a few ye ...

and then worked for the government on land resettlement in the

Gokwe district The Gokwe Region consists of the land in the area around Gokwe centre that was formerly under the control of the hangweanguage people, a Shona-speaking group, which lay in the northern part of the Midlands province of northwestern Zimbabwe, and ...

before attending the

University of Rhodesia The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. It opened in 1952 as the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was initially affiliated with the University of London. It was later renamed the University ...

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

where he received an honours degree in economics. After that he worked as an economist, eventually becoming Chief Economist in the Agricultural Marketing Authority in 1976. He was opposed to white minority rule during the Rhodesian Prime Minister

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to ...

era.

Independence

After the internationally recognised independence of Zimbabwe in 1980, Cross was appointed first to head the Dairy Marketing Board and then the Cold Storage Commission. The CSC was the largest meat-marketing organisation in Africa. He was subsequently CEO of the Beira Corridor Group, which promoted the rehabilitation of the Beira Corridor as an export outlet to the sea for land locked Zimbabwe. On 10 February 2009, Tsvangirai designated Cross for the position of Minister of State Enterprise and Parastatals as part of the

national unity government A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other nati ...

. He was, however, dropped from the Cabinet list and replaced prior to the Cabinet's swearing in.

Family

He is married to Jeanette and has two children, Gary and Susan as well as four thoroughbred champion horses named Sasha, Laquinta, Charlie, and Mr. Onassis.

References

* http://www.eddiecross.africanherd.com/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20070927025309/http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/inflation39.13255.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20050525021922/http://www.mdczimbabwe.org/Archives/2005/march/eddiecrossupdate.htm *http://zimbabwemetro.com/2008/03/10/for-bulawayo-southeddie-cross/ *https://web.archive.org/web/20070820205228/http://voanews.com/english/Africa/2007-07-26-voa50.cfm?renderforprint=1&textonly=1&&TEXTMODE=1&CFID=78481126&CFTOKEN=67935723 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Eddie Zimbabwean people of British descent Zimbabwean democracy activists Members of the National Assembly of Zimbabwe 1940 births Living people White Rhodesian people White Zimbabwean politicians Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai politicians People from Bulawayo