Elisabeth Isabel Valerio is a Zimbabwean businesswoman and politician who is leader of the United Zimbabwe Alliance (UZA). She was the only female candidate for president in the

2023 Zimbabwean general election General elections were held throughout Zimbabwe on 23 and 24 August 2023 to elect the president, legislators and councillors. The main race for presidential office was between two candidates of Karanga origin: ZANU–PF's Emmerson Dambudzo Mn ...

Early life and education

Elisabeth Valerio was born in

Masvingo Masvingo is a city in south-eastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The city is situated close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name and close to Lake Mutirikwi, its recreational park, th ...

, Zimbabwe. She grew up in

Hwange Hwange (formerly Wankie) is a town in Zimbabwe, located in Hwange District, in Matabeleland North Province, in northwestern Zimbabwe, close to the international borders with Botswana and Zambia. It lies approximately , by road, southeast of Vi ...

Matabeleland North Province Matabeleland North is a province in western Zimbabwe. With a population of 749,017 as of the 2012 census, it is the country's second-least populous province, after Matabeleland South, and is the country's least densely populated province. Matabe ...

. She spent most of her childhood in the mid-1970s in her parents’ grocery store at Machipisa Shopping Center in

Highfield Highfield may refer to: Places ;Places in England * Highfield, Bolton * Highfield, Derbyshire * Highfield, Gloucestershire *Highfield, Southampton *Highfield, Hertfordshire a neighbourhood in Hemel Hempstead * Highfield, Oxfordshire * Highfield, S ...

. Valerio attended

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Career

Valerio is a biochemist and conservationist by profession. She began her career as a biochemist then moved to Hwange, where she became an environmentalist. In 2020, Elisabeth was led a national appeal to Emmerson Mnangagwa to stop coal mining in the Hwange National Park and any other park reserve, the Zimbabwe’s cabinet then announced that no mining would occur within any national park in Zimbabwe. She is the founding Chairperson for the Association for Tourism Hwange. In 2022, Elisabeth founded of the Entrepreneurial & Leadership Initiative for Sustainability in Africa (ELISA). Elisabeth Valerio established United Zimbabwe Alliance political party in 2022. The party was launched on 16 March 2022 at the Andy Millar Hall in Harare, Zimbabwe. Valerio became an official candidate in the

after winning an appeal barring her participation. In the election she came ninth out of eleven candidates.

Personal life

Valerio's mother Isabel Madangure was the first woman to contest a presidential election in African history. They are descendants of Masvingo's chieftain Mugabe.

References

External links

Official website
Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Matabeleland North Province Candidates for President of Zimbabwe University of California, Los Angeles alumni 21st-century Zimbabwean women politicians 21st-century Zimbabwean politicians Zimbabwean biologists Zimbabwean environmentalists {{Zimbabwe-politician-stub