Mildred Reason Dube (died 27 June 2022) was a Zimbabwean politician who served in the

Senate of Zimbabwe The Senate of Zimbabwe is the upper of the two chambers in Zimbabwe's Parliament. It existed from independence in 1980 until 1989, and was re-introduced in November 2005. The other chamber of Parliament is the National Assembly. In its curren ...

from 2018 until her death in 2022, representing

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council cl ...

. First elected in the

2018 Zimbabwean general election General elections were held in Zimbabwe on 30 July 2018 to elect the President and members of both houses of Parliament. Held eight months after the 2017 coup d'état, the election was the first since independence in which former President Robe ...

, Dube was a close ally of

Thokozani Khupe Thokozani Khupe (born 18 November 1963) is a Zimbabwean politician, trade unionist and the President of the MDC-T breakaway faction of the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). She was Deputy Prime ...

. In 2020, Dube, who was a member of the

Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai The Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T) is a centre-left political party and was the main opposition party in the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe ahead of the 2018 elections. After the split of the original Movement for Democ ...

party, was threatened with expulsion from the party by party-leader Nixon Nyikadzino; however, she was protected by Khupe, who was the party's acting president. Dube later became the leader of the MDC–T's parliamentary caucus. However, in January 2022, Dube, Khupe, and two other allies of Khupe were expelled from the party, following Khupe's decision to split from the MDC–T and create a new party. In 2021, Dube supported a bill proposed by the

Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front 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 Moza ...

, the ruling party of Zimbabwe, which would amend the

Constitution of Zimbabwe A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

to remove the direct election of the

vice-president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

, extend the tenure of judges, and guarantee quotas for women in

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

and local government. The prior two provisions were seen as a move intended to concentrate power in the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by a ...

. In addition to Dube, ten other MDC–T senators supported the amendment. Dube died on 27 June 2022.

References

20th-century births 2022 deaths Date of birth missing Year of birth missing Place of birth missing Place of death missing 21st-century Zimbabwean politicians 21st-century Zimbabwean women politicians Members of the Senate of Zimbabwe Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai politicians People from Bulawayo {{Zimbabwe-politician-stub