Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri (born Oppah Chamu Zvipange Muchinguri; 14 December 1958) 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 politician, who is the Minister of Defence in the

Cabinet of Zimbabwe The Cabinet of Zimbabwe is the executive body that forms the government of Zimbabwe together with the President of Zimbabwe. The Cabinet is composed of the President, the Vice-Presidents, and ministers appointed by the President. Until 1987, the Ca ...

since 2018. She has also served as Minister of Higher Education and Minister of Women's Affairs. Muchinguri ran as the ZANU-PF candidate for Mutasa Central constituency in the March 2008 parliamentary election, but was defeated by Trevor Saruwaka, a candidate 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 ...

. According to official results, Muchinguri received 4,764 votes against 9,228 votes for Saruwaka. ''The Herald'' reported on 3 January 2009, that Muchinguri had been dismissed from the Cabinet earlier in the week, along with 11 other ministers, because she no longer held any seat in Parliament. She was re-appointed to cabinet in 2014 following the dismissal of former Vice-President

Joice Mujuru Joice Runaida Mujuru (née Mugari; born 15 April 1955), also known by her nom-de-guerre Teurai Ropa Nhongo, is a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Vice-President of Zimbabwe from 2004 to 2014. Previously she had served as a g ...

and several of her allies, in December 2014. In 2015 she was moved to the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate in a cabinet reshuffle. On 27 November 2017,

Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Z ...

's successor

Emmerson Mnangagwa Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa (, American English, US: (); born 15 September 1942) is a Zimbabwean politician who has served as President of Zimbabwe since 24 November 2017. A member of ZANU–PF and a longtime ally of former President Robert Muga ...

dissolved the cabinet She was appointed as the Minister of Environment, Water and Climate again on 30 November 2017. She was later appointed Minister of Defense in September 2018. She was placed on the

United States sanctions After the failure of the Embargo Act of 1807, the federal government of the United States took little interest in imposing embargoes and economic sanctions against foreign countries until the 20th century. United States trade policy was entirely a ...

list in 2003. In 2020 she claimed that the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic was God's punishment on the countries (USA etc.) that "suffocate" Zimbabwe by sanctions. In January 2021 Muchinguri was condemned by public health experts in Zimbabwe after accusing China of "botched experiments" that were responsible for the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the world after Zimbabwe lost 2 cabinet ministers.

References

1958 births Living people Defence Ministers of Zimbabwe Female defence ministers ZANU–PF politicians {{Zimbabwe-politician-stub