Obert Mpofu

The Right Honourable Obert Mpofu MP
Minister of Mines and Mining Development of Zimbabwe
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 February 2009
Prime Minister	Morgan Tsvangirai
Minister of Industry and International Trade
In office April 2005 – 13 February 2009
President	Robert Mugabe
Succeeded by	Welshman Ncube
Governor of Matabeleland North
In office 2002–2005
Personal details
Born	(1951-10-12) 12 October 1951 Southern Rhodesia
Political party	Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
Children	Bukhosie mkhokheli

Obert Moses Mpofu is a Zimbabwean politician, currently serving as Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development. Previously he was Minister of Industry and International Trade and later appointed Minister of Mines and Mining Development before his current position.

Political career

Mpofu, previously the Governor of Matabeleland North Province, was appointed as Minister of Industry and International Trade in mid-April 2005, following the March 2005 parliamentary election.

At the beginning of 2014, Mpofu was reported to be seeking nomination from Zanu-PF’s Matabeleland North provincial leadership for the position of party Chairman. It was reported that his main rival for the position was the Speaker of the Zimbabwean Parliament, Jacob Mudenda. It is believed that Mpofu was one of the earliest ZPRA guerillas to be trained for the Zimbabwean Liberation War way back in the 1960s.

Ministry of Industry & Trade

Mpofu masterminded the freeze of basic commodities in Zimbabwe in mid-2007. He was appointed by Robert Mugabe to lead the price monitoring regime that was created following the price-freeze. He withdrew operating licenses from abattoirs across the country during the price freeze, a situation that resulted in beef becoming scarce in shops across the country. In early 2008, he initiated the idea of 'people's shops' government run retail shops that would sell products at cheap prices.

Sino-Zimbabwe trade

Mpofu was at the forefront encouraging trade between Zimbabwe and China, as part of the government's Look-East policy. At one time, Gao Hucheng, Chinese vice-minister for commerce, after meeting with Mpofu claimed: "Chinese goods had been well received by Zimbabweans and that his government would continue to promote trade between the two countries as this had also improved the lives of people."

2008 general election

Obert Mpofu has been nominated again as the ZANU-PF candidate for the House of Assembly seat from Umguza constituency in the March 2008 parliamentary election. Mpofu was initially endorsed as unopposed, but Mark Mbayiwa challenged this in court and was successful in getting Mpofu's unopposed endorsement overturned.

Campaigning in Umguza, Mpofu singled out Simba Makoni as an agent of western imperialism. .

Mpofu won the seat, receiving 7,065 votes and defeating two candidates of the two Movement for Democratic Change factions, Cornelius Mbayiwa (MDC-T) and Edmund Masuku (MDC-M), who respectively received 2,846 and 2,120 votes. He also defeated Mark Mbayiwa, who ran as an independent and received 555 votes.

When the ZANU-PF–MDC national unity government was sworn in on 13 February 2009, Mpofu became Minister of Mines.