Oppah Chamu Zvipange Muchinguri-Kashiri (born 14 December 1958) is a

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

an politician who serves as

minister of defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

in the cabinet of Zimbabwe 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 of the

Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai The Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T) is a Centre-left politics, 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 origin ...

. 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 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's successor Emmerson Mnangagwa 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 Defence in September 2018. She was placed on the

United States sanctions United States government sanctions are financial and trade restrictions imposed against individuals, entities, and jurisdictions whose actions contradict U.S. foreign policy or national security goals. Financial sanctions are primarily administ ...

list in 2003. In 2020 she claimed that the

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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 Education ministers of Zimbabwe Environment ministers of Zimbabwe Female defence ministers Members of the National Assembly of Zimbabwe Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List Women government ministers of Zimbabwe ZANU–PF politicians First women governors {{Zimbabwe-politician-stub