HARARE, Jan 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Zimbabwe’s foreign affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo died Wednesday, a day after testing positive to COVID-19, acting chief secretary to the president and cabinet George Charamba said in a statement.
He becomes the third government minister to succumb to COVID-19 since the pandemic hit the country in March 2020.
The retired army Lieutenant-General was the face of the military operation that ousted former President Robert Mugabe in November 2019 and went on to be part of current President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration.
Moyo, 61, who suffered from a kidney condition, reportedly died in a medical facility in the capital Harare.
Widely seen as a representative of the military in the Zimbabwean government, he is the third government minister to die of the coronavirus.
Minister of Agriculture Perrance Shiri, a former air force commander who was given to the portfolio after the coup, also succumbed to the disease in July last year.
Ellen Gwaradzimba, who was the minister of provincial affairs for Manicaland Province, also died last week of COVID-19.
Another major figure in the Southern African nation, former deputy minister of finance in the 1980s, Morton Malianga, also succumbed to COVID-19 last week.
The country has seen a spike in COVID-19 infections and fatalities since the start of the new year, with the Health Ministry on Tuesday recording 52 deaths and 783 new infections within 24 hours.
It has reported 28,675 COVID-19 cases to date, including 825 deaths. — NNN-AGENCIES
