Didymus Noel Edwin Mutasa (born 27 July 1935) 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 served as Zimbabwe's Speaker of Parliament from 1980 to 1990. Subsequently, he held various ministerial posts working under President

Robert 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 ...

in the President's Office. He was Minister of State for Presidential Affairs from 2009 to 2014 and also served as ZANU-PF's Secretary for Administration.Cris Chinaka
"Zanu-PF decides plan of action"
Reuters, 4 April 2008.

Family background and education

Didymus Mutasa was born in 1935 in

Rusape Rusape is a town in Zimbabwe. Location It is located in Makoni District in Manicaland Province, in northeastern Zimbabwe. It lies approximately , by road, southeast of Harare, the capital and the largest city in Zimbabwe. Rusape is situated on ...

, a town close to the Zimbabwe/Mozambique border in Africa. He was the sixth child of a devout Christian couple. Mutasa was a student of Fircroft College of Adult Education in Birmingham, UK, where he attended the Access to Higher Education Course. He studied at

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

on a

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

scholarship. Mutasa was awarded the honorary degree of

Doctor of Social Science The Doctor of Social Science (DSocSci, SScD or DSS) degree is the highest degree offered by some universities in the field of social sciences, for which other universities confer a Ph.D. Like the PhD, it is recognized as a terminal research degre ...

(DSocSc) by the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

in 1990.

Political career

Before Zimbabwean independence, he was chairman of the Cold Comfort Farm society, a non-racial co-operative community near Salisbury (as it then was). This was located on a farm formerly belonging to Lord Acton. It was promoted by Guy and Molly Clutton-Brock and others. Mutasa was detained for two years without trial and the Clutton-Brocks were exiled. At independence Mutasa seized Cold Comfort Farm for himself. Following independence, Mutasa was Zimbabwe's first Speaker of Parliament from 1980 to 1990.Trevor Grundy
sector=OPIN "Whatever Happened to Didymus Mutasa?"
Institute for War Reporting (kubatana.net), 2 October 2006. He has served as the Member of Parliament for Makoni North"Mugabe rewards loyalists in new Cabinet"
''New Zimbabwe'', 9 February 2004. and as a member of the ZANU-PF Politburo;
Zimbabwe News Online, Edition No. 18, 15 April 1998. he is the party's Secretary for Administration"MP's sworn in, new ministers appointed"
SADOCC, 16 April 2005. and has also served as its Secretary for External Affairs. In April 1998, Mutasa, in defending President

, said that if Mugabe were pressed to step down, then the entire Cabinet and Politburo should step down along with him, because, in Mutasa's view, if Mugabe had truly "stayed for too long and misgoverned", then those who had governed with him, "including those who are calling on Mugabe to step down", must have done so as well. In 2002, he controversially said that it would be a good thing if the population were halved: "We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who supported the liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra people." He was appointed as Minister of Special Affairs in the President's Office in charge of the Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies Programme on 9 February 2004; he was then appointed as State Security Minister in mid-April 2005, following the March 2005 parliamentary election, later Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement in the President's Office., Parliament of Zimbabwe.gov.zw In the March 2008 parliamentary election, Mutasa was nominated by ZANU-PF as its candidate for the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

seat from

Headlands A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Joh ...

constituency in

Manicaland Manicaland is a Provinces of Zimbabwe, province in eastern Zimbabwe. After Harare Province, it is the country's second-most populous province, with a population of 2.037 million, as of the 2012 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census. After Harare and Bulawa ...

. He won the seat with 7,257 votes against 4,235 for Fambirayi Tsimba of the

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 ...

, according to official results. In 2007, he was involved in a bizarre hoax involving a witch doctor and refined diesel gushing from a rock. Mutasa was identified with a faction in ZANU-PF that wanted 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 ...

to become President Mugabe's successor. In late 2014, the Mujuru faction was accused of plotting against Mugabe, and in that context Mutasa failed to win re-election to the ZANU-PF Central Committee in November 2014. He was dismissed from his ministerial post on 8 December 2014, at the same time that Mujuru and others allied with her lost their posts in the government.

Background

In 2002 the Zimbabwean government seized the farms of ten citizens of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

who resided in Zimbabwe, ostensibly as part of the government's

land reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...

. An international tribunal in Paris, France summoned Mutasa to testify about the seizure in November 2007. Mutasa acknowledged on 12 August 2007 that the Zimbabwean government took their farms without their permission and without compensating them monetarily. The farmers are represented by British lawyer Matthew Coleman, assisted by the

International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is an international arbitration institution established in 1966 for legal dispute resolution and conciliation between international investors and States. ICSID is part of ...

, and pay no legal fees as these are picked up by AgricAfrica, a British-Zimbabwean organisation. The court is expected to rule on their case by March 2008. The farmers are asking for US$48 million (33 million euros) in compensation and the government has pledged to reimburse them when it is financially possible. If the government does not compensate the farmers and the court rules in their favour then they may seize any property of the government equivalent to what they are owed as long as that property is outside Europe, including foreign aid from the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

. The government also seized the farms of 50 Europeans, citizens of

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, Germany, and

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

who will soon be heard by the tribunal. The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

sanctioned top-members of Zimbabwe's government with a visa ban in protest of the government's abuses, but lifted the sanction so Mutasa could defend the government at the tribunal.Mugabe Government Admits Zimbabwe White Farmers Were Wronged
Voice of America Similarly, he has been 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 since 2003. On 12 June 2007, Mutasa announced the government planned to deport all

whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...

, saying, "The position is that food shortages or no food shortages, we are going ahead to remove the remaining whites. Too many blacks are still clamoring for land and we will resettle them on the remaining farms."
The Zimbabwe Guardian In December 2009 it was again claimed that Mutasa was behind some of the farm invasions.

Film appearance

Didymus Mutasa is set to be featured in the Pan-African film '' Motherland (2010 film), Motherland'' (2009) as one of the speakers on land reform in Africa.

References

External links