17 Facts About Didymus Mutasa

Didymus Noel Edwin Mutasa was born on 27 July 1935 and is a Zimbabwean politician who served as Zimbabwe's Speaker of Parliament from 1980 to 1990.

Didymus Mutasa was Minister of State for Presidential Affairs from 2009 to 2014 and served as ZANU-PF's Secretary for Administration.

Didymus Mutasa was the sixth child of a devout Christian couple.

Didymus Mutasa did his primary and secondary school at St Faith's, an Anglican Mission in Rusape.

Didymus Mutasa studied at Birmingham University on a British Council scholarship.

Didymus Mutasa was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Social Science by the University of Birmingham in 1990.

Didymus Mutasa was detained for two years without trial and the Clutton-Brocks were exiled.

Didymus Mutasa has served as the Member of Parliament for Makoni North and as a member of the ZANU-PF Politburo; he is the party's Secretary for Administration and has served as its Secretary for External Affairs.

Didymus Mutasa 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; he was then appointed as State Security Minister in mid-April 2005, following the March 2005 parliamentary election, later Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement in the President's Office.

Didymus Mutasa won the seat with 7,257 votes against 4,235 for Fambirayi Tsimba of the Movement for Democratic Change, according to official results.

Didymus 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 Didymus Mutasa failed to win re-election to the ZANU-PF Central Committee in November 2014.

Didymus Mutasa 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.

An international tribunal in Paris, France summoned Didymus Mutasa to testify about the seizure in November 2007.

Didymus Mutasa acknowledged on 12 August 2007 that the Zimbabwean government took their farms without their permission and without compensating them monetarily.

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 Didymus Mutasa could defend the government at the tribunal.

Didymus Mutasa is set to be featured in the Pan-African film Motherland as one of the speakers on land reform in Africa.