Rugare Eleck Ngidi Gumbo (born 8 March 1940) 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. He is a former Minister of Economic Development in the Zimbabwean government during the administration of Robert Mugabe.

Early background

He grew up in colonial in Belingwe district (renamed Mberengwa after independence) district of

Rhodesia Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...

on 8 March 1940, and was educated at a government secondary school. From his early teens he was involved in nationalist politics, and at the age of 22 was a branch chairman of the Fort Victoria (now Masvingo) ZAPU party under Joshua Nkomo.

Political career

Gumbo was appointed as Minister of Economic Development in April 2005, following the March 2005 parliamentary election; this appointment involved splitting a new Ministry of Economic Development from the old Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. In this position, Gumbo launched the National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) on 19 April 2006, in an attempt to revive Zimbabwe's struggling economy within six to nine months. He was appointed as Minister of Agriculture in February 2007. '' The Herald'' reported 3 January 2009, that Gumbo had been dismissed from the Cabinet earlier in the week, along with 11 other ministers, because he no longer held any seat in Parliament. Gumbo was suspended from ZANU PF for 5 years with immediate effect on Thursday 14 November 2014. A few weeks later he was expelled from ZANU PF. Thereafter many more politicians who were said to be aligned to former Vice President Joyce Mujuru were to also be suspended and expelled. Gumbo is a founding member and elder of a political party formed in 2015, called Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF), which disbanded after differences with Mujuru. Since 2003, Gumbo has been 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, and from the following year also on the

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sanctions list.

References

Living people 1940 births ZANU–PF politicians Government ministers of Zimbabwe Place of birth missing (living people) Members of the 5th Parliament of Zimbabwe {{Zimbabwe-politician-stub