Harare
Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo, who gained prominence in 2017 as the military general who announced the coup against then-president Robert Mugabe on television, has died from COVID-19. He was 61. Moyo, previously little known to the public, became the face of the coup when he announced that the military had placed Mugabe under house arrest as the military’s armored vehicles rolled into the capital, Harare. The coup ended Mugabe’s 37-year rule in Zimbabwe and he later died in Sept. 2019. Moyo was appointed foreign affairs minister after President Emerson Mnangagwa took power with military backing. Moyo “succumbed to COVID-19 at a local hospital” on Wednesday, Mnangagwa’s spokesman George Charamba said in a statement. Zimbabwe is experiencing a resurgence of the disease, with record numbers of daily confirmed cases and deaths. Mnangagwa is on Thursday set to bury another Cabinet minister, Ellen Gwaradzimba, who died from COVID-19 last week. Opposition spokeswoman Fadzayi Mahere says she has tested positive for COVID-19 after being released from prison. She was freed after seven days of detention on Monday. Jailed journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and other inmates have previously raised concern over crowded prison conditions, which they said encourages COVID-19 transmission among inmates and jail guards. — Reuters
