Simbarashe Mumbengegwi

Simbarashe Simbanenduku Mumbengegwi (born 20 July 1945 ) is a Zimbabwean politician and diplomat currently serving as Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Monitoring Government Programmes. Previously he was acting Foreign Minister for a few days following the resignation of former President Robert Mugabe He had previously served as Zimbabwe's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2017. From October to November 2017, he was Minister of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion.

Life and career Mumbengegwi was born in Chivi, Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia). After receiving his primary and secondary education in Zimbabwe, he attended Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, in the late 1960s and 1970s. He was subsequently Ambassador to Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Permanent Representative to the European Communities in 1995. He later became High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ambassador to Ireland in 1999, remaining there until 2005 (although he became Ambassador to the United Kingdom rather than High Commissioner in 2003, upon Zimbabwe's withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Nations).

In the March 2008 parliamentary election, Mumbengegwi was nominated by ZANU-PF as its candidate for the Senate seat from Shurugwi-Zvishavane in the Midlands. He won the seat according to official results, receiving 24,055 votes against 11,988 for Vincent Gwarazimba of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

When the ZANU-PF–MDC national unity government was sworn in on 13 February 2009, Mumbengegwi was retained as Minister of Foreign Affairs.