Dr Tichaona Joseph Benjamin Jokonya was a Zimbabwean politician, civil servant and diplomat.
19 Facts About Tichaona Jokonya
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In 1965 Tichaona Jokonya became more involved in politics and was appointed as Secretary for Political Affairs by the National Union of Zimbabwe Students.
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The NUZS supported majority rule and after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence Tichaona Jokonya left the country, fearing that he would be detained.
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Tichaona Jokonya was a good student and was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship for a postgraduate degree at the University of Sussex School of African Studies in 1968, at which he wrote a dissertation on military intervention in politics in Africa.
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Tichaona Jokonya followed this with a thesis on colonial land policy in Malawi, and went on to the University of London's Institute of Education where he was awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1971.
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Tichaona Jokonya taught in Birmingham for six years in the 1970s.
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In 1983 Dr Tichaona Jokonya was appointed as Zimbabwean ambassador to Ethiopia.
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Dr Tichaona Jokonya returned from this post to be Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Political Affairs in 1988, and took the additional role of Secretary for Foreign Affairs in 1990.
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Tichaona Jokonya became concerned about expenditure on diplomatic missions and set them spending targets, while pressing for returns to Zimbabwe through increased exports; he set up a statistical monitoring system to make sure the expected benefits were being delivered.
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In 1992 Dr Tichaona Jokonya became permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and from 1999 he was promoted to work at the UN headquarters in New York.
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Tichaona Jokonya was a personal representative of President Robert Mugabe to the G-15 developing countries movement.
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Dr Tichaona Jokonya was a personal beneficiary of the land reform, being allocated three formerly white-owned farms.
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Tichaona Jokonya refocused marketing to seek tourists from China, France and South Africa instead of the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, saying "It is wrong to send attaches to countries which we are fighting against".
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Tichaona Jokonya's term saw a rapid increase in the number of tourists coming to Zimbabwe from Asia.
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In contrast to the previous Minister Jonathan Moyo, Dr Tichaona Jokonya tried to reach out to media sources which were less friendly to the Zimbabwe government.
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On taking up his office, Dr Tichaona Jokonya offered regular meetings with journalists to discuss their coverage.
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Tichaona Jokonya worked to restructure Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings, which had been created as an umbrella company when the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation was split up.
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Tichaona Jokonya was found dead in his hotel room on 24 June 2006.
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Tichaona Jokonya was placed on the United States sanctions list in 2005 and remained there until his death.