26 Facts About Tony Gara

Oriah Anthony Gara was a Zimbabwean businessman and politician.

Tony Gara was a member of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe for Mbare East from 1990 to 2000 and served as deputy minister of local government, rural and urban development from 1995 until 2000.

Tony Gara returned to Rhodesia in 1975 to become chief executive officer of Negondo Industries, a chemical and cosmetics manufacturing company.

In 1979, Tony Gara was elected to the city council in Salisbury, becoming its first black member.

Tony Gara served as deputy mayor from 1984 to 1985, and was then elected mayor, serving for one year.

Tony Gara was reelected in 1995 and named deputy minister of local government and national housing in Mugabe's cabinet, but lost reelection in 2000 to the candidate of the newly-formed Movement for Democratic Change.

Tony Gara was born on 17 April 1939 in Gatooma, Southern Rhodesia.

Tony Gara attended the Mashonganyika, Mbizi, and Tsungai primary schools between 1950 and 1957.

Tony Gara attended Moleli High School in Chegutu District, and later completed his Advanced Levels via correspondence.

Tony Gara went on to earn a diploma in accountancy.

In 1963, Tony Gara began working as an assistant accountant for Goodwood Hotels, before going to Malawi to work as an accountant for Blantyre Hotels in 1966.

Tony Gara joined the Zimbabwe African National Union upon its formation in Malawi.

Tony Gara became a member of the party's central committee in 1994.

Tony Gara became the first black member of the Harare City Council in 1979 when he was elected to a seat representing Greendale.

Tony Gara later became the city's first black alderman, an honorary title awarded to councillors who have served ten years or more.

Tony Gara served as deputy mayor from 1984 to 1985.

Tony Gara was elected mayor of Harare on 29 July 1985, with Solomon Tawengwa as his deputy.

Tony Gara received 12,522 votes out of 17,880 cast, easily defeating Zimbabwe Unity Movement candidate Biston David, who came in second with 4,420 votes.

On 4 January 2002, Tony Gara's name was included on a government list published in The Herald of around 100,000 black Zimbabweans selected to receive land seized from white farmers.

Tony Gara was listed as having been allocated a commercial farm seized from a white farmer in Mashonaland West, the country's richest agricultural province.

In May 2005, Tony Gara was named to a five-person monitoring committee created by local government minister Ignatius Chombo to wrest authority over Harare from the capital's MDC-dominated city council.

Tony Gara claimed that Gara was bitter after the party's Harare Province passed a vote of no confidence in him earlier that year for his alleged attempts to set up a rival party district in Mbare.

Tony Gara died on 14 November 2006 around 6 am at St Anne's Hospital in Harare.

Tony Gara had been suffering from cancer for almost six years, and had recently been in and out of the hospital.

Tony Gara was survived by his wife, seven children, and six grandchildren.

President Robert Mugabe, who was Tony Gara's cousin, spoke at his funeral.