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'{{Use British English|date=May 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2013}} {{Infobox Officeholder |honorific-prefix = [[The Honourable]] |name = Didymus Mutasa |honorific-suffix = [[Member of Parliament|MP]] |image = MutasaScholten1988.jpg |imagesize = 150px |smallimage = |caption = ([[Jan Nico Scholten|Scholten]] and Mutasa, 1986) |order = |office =Minister of State for Presidential Affairs |term_start =13 February 2009 |term_end =8 December 2014 |president =[[Robert Mugabe]] |primeminister = [[Morgan Tsvangirai]] |predecessor = |order2 = |office2 = Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement in the President's Office of Zimbabwe |term_start2 = April 2005 |term_end2 = 13 February 2009 |deputy2 = |president2 = [[Robert Mugabe]] |predecessor2 = |successor2 = [[Sydney Sekeramayi]] |order3 = |office3 = Minister of Special Affairs in the President's Office in charge of the Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies Programme |term_start3 = February 2004 |term_end3 = April 2005 |deputy3 = |predecessor3 = |president3 =[[Robert Mugabe]] |successor3 = |order4 = |office4 = [[Speaker of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe]] |term_start4 =1980 |term_end4 =1990 |predecessor4 =[[John Ruredzo]] <small>([[Southern Rhodesia]])</small> |successor4 =[[Nolan Makombe]] |president4 =[[Canaan Banana]] |primeminister4 =[[Robert Mugabe]] |birth_date = {{birth date and age|1935|07|27|df=yes}} |birth_place = [[Southern Rhodesia]] |nationality = Zimbabwean |party = [[ZANU-PF]] |spouse = |relations = |children = |residence = |alma_mater = [[Fircroft College]] [[University of Birmingham]] |occupation =Politician |profession =Farmer |religion = Catholic |signature = |website = |footnotes = }} '''Didymus Noel Edwin Mutasa''' (born 27 July 1935)<ref>{{Wayback |date=20060929230219 |url=www.parlzim.gov.zw/Mps_index_six/Mutasa/mutasa.html |title=Page at Zimbabwean Parliament website }}.</ref> is a [[Zimbabwe]]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]] in the President's Office. He was [[Minister of State for Presidential Affairs (Zimbabwe)|Minister of State for Presidential Affairs]] from 2009 to 2014<ref name=swornin>{{cite web|title=Cabinet sworn in amid chaotic scenes|date=13 February 2009|publisher=NewZimbabwe.com|url=http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/minister20.19389.html|accessdate=2009-02-13}}</ref> and also served as [[ZANU-PF]]'s Secretary for Administration.<ref name=Plan>Cris Chinaka, [http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20080404165716189C654967 "Zanu-PF decides plan of action"], Reuters, 4 April 2008.</ref> ==Family background and education== Didymus Mutasa was born in 1935 in [[Rusape]], 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 was a student at [[Birmingham University]].<ref>http://www.pindula.co.zw/Didymus_Mutasa#Education</ref><ref>http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/16/4659.htm</ref> ==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 Clutton-Brock]] and others.(Personal visit in 1971). Following independence, Mutasa was Zimbabwe's first Speaker of Parliament from 1980 to 1990.<ref name=Whatever>Trevor Grundy, [http://iwpr.net/report-news/whatever-happened-didymus-mutasa sector=OPIN "Whatever Happened to Didymus Mutasa?"], Institute for War Reporting (kubatana.net), 2 October 2006.</ref> He has served as the Member of Parliament for [[Makoni North]]<ref name=Rewards>[http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/feb10a_2004.html#link6 "Mugabe rewards loyalists in new Cabinet"], ''New Zimbabwe'', 9 February 2004.</ref> and as a member of the ZANU-PF Politburo;<ref name=Quit>[http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Newsletters/zmno18.html "Mugabe should not quit alone{{spaced ndash}}minister"], Zimbabwe News Online, Edition No. 18, 15 April 1998.</ref> he is the party's Secretary for Administration<ref name=Plan/><ref name=Sworn>[http://www.sadocc.at/news/2005/2005-101.shtml "MP's sworn in, new ministers appointed"], SADOCC, 16 April 2005.</ref> and has also served as its Secretary for External Affairs.<ref>Basildon Peta, [http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=84&art_id=vn20021213060014999C967402 "ANC invites Mugabe to attend party conference"], ''Cape Times'', 13 December 2002, page 5.</ref> In April 1998, Mutasa, in defending President [[Robert Mugabe]], 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.<ref name=Quit/> 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."<ref name=Whatever/> 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;<ref name=Rewards/> he was then appointed as State Security Minister in mid-April 2005, following the [[Zimbabwean parliamentary election, 2005|March 2005 parliamentary election]],<ref name="Sworn"/> later Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement in the President's Office.<ref name="Parliament of Zimbabwe">[http://www.parlzim.gov.zw/inside.aspx?mpgid=2&spid=8], Parliament of Zimbabwe.gov.zw</ref> In the [[Zimbabwean parliamentary election, 2008|March 2008 parliamentary election]], Mutasa was nominated by ZANU-PF as its candidate for the [[House of Assembly of Zimbabwe|House of Assembly]] seat from Headlands constituency in [[Manicaland]].<ref>[http://allafrica.com/stories/200802150006.html "Zimbabwe: Zanu-PF Names Poll Candidates"], ''The Herald'', 15 February 2008.</ref> He won the seat with 7,257 votes against 4,235 for Fambirayi Tsimba of the [[Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai|Movement for Democratic Change]], according to official results.<ref>[http://www.sokwanele.com/election2008/constituency Results page for Headlands], sokwanele.com.</ref> In 2007, he was involved in a bizarre hoax involving a witch doctor and refined diesel gushing from a rock.<ref>[http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=17720]</ref> Mutasa was identified with a faction in ZANU-PF that wanted Vice-President [[Joice Mujuru]] 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.<ref>[http://allafrica.com/stories/201411250354.html "Manicaland Rejects Didymus Mutasa"], ''THe Herald'', 25 November 2014.</ref> 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.<ref>MacDonald Dzirutwe, [http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/09/us-zimbabwe-mujuru-idUSKBN0JN0P420141209 "Zimbabwe's Mugabe fires deputy, seven ministers"], Reuters, 9 December 2014.</ref> == Background == In 2002 the Zimbabwean government seized the farms of ten citizens of [[the Netherlands]] who resided in Zimbabwe, ostensibly as part of the government's [[Land reform in Zimbabwe|land reform]]. 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]], 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 government also seized the farms of 50 Europeans, citizens of [[Switzerland]], Germany, and [[Denmark]] who will soon be heard by the tribunal. The [[European Union]] 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.<ref name="abuse">[http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-11-12-voa14.cfm Mugabe Government Admits Zimbabwe White Farmers Were Wronged] Voice of America</ref> On 12 June 2007, Mutasa announced the government planned to deport all [[Whites in Zimbabwe|whites]], 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."<ref name="deport">[http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=84&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=5877&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1705&hn=talkzimbabwe&he=.com] The Zimbabwe Guardian</ref> In December 2009 it was again claimed that Mutasa was behind some of the farm invasions.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.swradioafrica.com/news241209/farmingfamily241209.htm|publisher=SW Radio Africa News|title=Farming family forced to flee after threats by land invaders|date=24 December 2009|accessdate=2010-01-08}}</ref> <ref>[http://www.thestandard.co.zw/local/22819-mutasa-muchinguri-lock-horns-over-farm-seizure.html Mutasa, Muchinguri Lock Horns Over Farm Seizure] ''Standard''</ref> ==Film appearance== Didymus Mutasa is set to be featured in the Pan-African film ''[[Motherland (film)|Motherland]]'' (2009) as one of the speakers on land reform in Africa.<ref>[http://wwww.themotherland.info Motherland Film]</ref> ==See also== * [[Joint Operations Command (Zimbabwe)|Joint Operations Command]] ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *[http://iwpr.net/?p=acr&s=f&o=324295&apc_state=heniacr200610 Whatever Happened to Didymus Mutasa?] {{Zimbabwe-Speakers of Parliament}} {{Zimbabwe government ministers}} {{Authority control|VIAF=11278660}} {{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. --> | NAME =Mutasa, Didymus | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = Zimbabwean politician | DATE OF BIRTH =27 July 1935 | PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Southern Rhodesia]] | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH =[[Southern Rhodesia]] }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mutasa, Didymus}} [[Category:1935 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People from Rusape]] [[Category:Speakers of the House of Assembly (Zimbabwe)]] [[Category:Government ministers of Zimbabwe]] [[Category:Alumni of Fircroft College]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham]]'