Obert Mpofu

Obert Mpofu was a member of the Hwange community, he grew up in Matabeleland North Province in Jambezi Village in the Zambezi Valley of Hwange District. He was the younger brother of Robert Moses Mpofu, a war hero from the Zimbabwe War of Independence.^[5] Obert Mpofu also served in the Zimbabwe War of Independence crossing over into Zambia in 1967 to be trained,^[5] although he primarily served as a messenger.^[6]

He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Delhi, MPS Masters in Policy Studies from the University of Zimbabwe, and a PhD in Policy Studies from Zimbabwe Open University.^[7]

Mpofu was first elected to parliament in 1980 as the Provincial Member for Matabeleland North. He again served in parliament as a non-constituency member from 1987 to 1990. In 1990 he was elected to parliament from Bubi-Umguza where he served until 1999.^[6]

In 2000 he was appointed as the Governor of Matabeleland North Province,^[6] a post he held until 2008.^[8]

Mpofu was appointed as Minister of Industry and International Trade in mid-April 2005, following the March 2005 parliamentary election.^[9][10] He was placed on the United States sanctions list in 2003.^[11]

At the beginning of 2014, Mpofu was reported to be seeking nomination from ZANU-PF’s Matabeleland North provincial leadership for the position of party Chairman. It was reported that his main rival for the position was the Speaker of the Zimbabwean Parliament, Jacob Mudenda. It is believed that Mpofu was one of the earliest ZPRA guerillas to be trained for the Zimbabwean Liberation War way back in the 1960s.^[12]

Mpofu masterminded the freeze of basic commodities in Zimbabwe in mid-2007. He was appointed by Robert Mugabe to lead the price monitoring regime that was created following the price-freeze.^[13] He withdrew operating licenses from abattoirs across the country during the price freeze, a situation that resulted in beef becoming scarce in shops across the country. In early 2008, he initiated the idea of 'people's shops' government run retail shops that would sell products cheaply.

When the ZANU-PF–MDC national unity government was sworn in on 13 February 2009, Mpofu became Minister of Mines.^[14][6]

Mpofu was appointed as Minister of Transport and Infrastructure in February 2014 and served until 2015.^[15]

Mpofu was Minister of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion from 2015 until 2017.

Mpofu was appointed as Minister of Home Affairs in October 2017. Following the dissolution of the Cabinet of Zimbabwe in November 2017, it was announced that Robert Mugabe's successor Emmerson Mnangagwa had allowed only Patrick Chinamasa and Simbarashe Mumbengegwi to remain as acting ministers of Finance and Foreign Affairs respectively until the appointment of a new cabinet.^[2] However, Mpofu was appointed as Minister of Home Affairs and Culture in the new cabinet.^[16] Mpofu was removed from the Mnangagwa Cabinet in September 2018, one of several more senior ministers who were dropped in the cabinet reshuffle.^[4][17]

He was first elected in 1980 as the Provincial Member for Matabeleland North. From 1995 to 1999 he was the Member of Parliament from the former Bubi-Umguza Constituency.^[18] But Mpofu lost the seat in 2000 to an MDC-T candidate.^[19]

In December 2017 he was appointed as the Secretary for Administration of the ZANU-PF political party. After the party’s 2022 congress, which restored the position of Secretary General, he was appointed to that post. In September 2025 he was removed as Secretary General and made the party's Secretary for Information Communication Technology (ICT). He was succeeded as Secretary General by Jacob Mudenda.^[25]