Nkosana Moyo

Educational Qualifications

Moyo holds a PhD in Physics from Imperial College (University of London) and an MBA from Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University in the UK.^[2]

Professional career

In March 2015, it was announced that Moyo would be appointed to the Impala Platinum Holdings (Implats) board. Implats is an 87 percent shareholder of Zimbabwe’s largest platinum producer – Zimplats.^[3]

Dr. Moyo is the Founder and Executive Chair of Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS) a continental institute based in South Africa. He has represented his organisation at various World Economic Forum conferences where he has spoken about African leadership and building resilient institutions.Dr. Moyo is on the boards of several companies including Old Mutual.^[4] before founding MINDS,Dr. Moyo was Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the African Development Bank from March 2009 to August 2011.

Prior to joining the AFDB Dr. Moyo was a Partner of Actis, a private equity firm investing exclusively in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He joined Actis in January 2004 soon after the fund was started and he was the Managing Partner and served as Senior Advisor on Africa^[5] He left in 2009. Before Actis,Dr. Moyo was with the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank as an Associate Director, based in Washington, with responsibility for all SMEs operations in Africa.^[4]

Before he joined politics (see political career below), Dr. Nkosana Moyo started his working career as an academic. He then spent six years in Industry and Commerce before moving into the Financial Services sector. There he served as Managing Director of Standard Chartered Merchant Bank in Zimbabwe and also became Regional Head of Corporate Banking - Africa, based in London where he had regional responsibility for 14 African countries.Dr. Moyo also served as Managing Director and Country Head of Standard Chartered Bank in Tanzania.^[6]

When he left Standard Chartered Bank,Dr. Nkosana Moyo established a Venture Capital firm called Batanai Capital Finance in Zimbabwe. It is not clear which investments the V.C firm made before Dr. Moyo was appointed Cabinet Minister in 2000.^[6]

Political career

Dr. Moyo was appointed Minister of Industry and Internal Trade by the Mugabe regime, soon after Zanu-PF won a heavily contested election in 2000. Dr. Moyo was described by US diplomats as "a surprising appointment given that Dr. Moyo had always taken pains to cast himself as a political independent." He was also referred to as "one of the best Zimbabwe has to offer in terms of technical capacity, grasp of the issues and network of contacts."^[7]

Resignation from active politics

Dr. Moyo is famously known for having fled to South Africa before faxing his letter of resgination from his cabinet position. It was reported that Dr.Moyo fled to avoid confrontation with Mugabe on his resignation. Mugabe is known to humiliate, publicly denounce and politically and economically isolate individuals that oppose his position on political matters.^[8]

In response to the resignation Mugabe is said to have referred to him as a "coward" and "spineless" person:

“I do not want ministers who are in the habit of running away. I want those I can call amadoda sibili (real men), people with spine,” Mugabe said then. “Our revolution . . . was not fought by cowards. If some of you are getting weak-kneed, tell us and we will continue with the struggle.” ^[1]

Return to active politics

On 29 June 2017, Dr Moyo announced, at a press conference which was held at the Meikles Hotel in Harare, that he would be running for President in 2018, as the Presidential candidate for his party Alliance for the People’s Agenda (APA).

Interview with Ruvheneko

Video

Views on different issues according to interview with Ruvheneko

Why he is running

Dr Nkosana Moyo said that his decision to run for President was in response to calls from many people to come and serve his country. He said that for close to 3 months, people had been asking him to come and play his part. He added that he was not the only person that people had asked to come and lead them. Econet founder Strive Masisyiwa had also received the same call.^[9]

Why launch at Meikles

Dr Moyo said that he would have preferred to launch his party in Highfield where he would have been more accessible and had actually planned on using Jennings Hall in Highfield but he knew that the Zimbabwe Republic Police was not going to grant him permission to do so. He added that security agents from the Central Intelligence Organisation had gone around intimidating people beforehand. ^[9]

State Institutions

Dr Moyo said that the Central Intelligence Organisation, the army, the police and the judiciary were supposed to be institutions of the Zimbabwean State, but were now acting as appendages of Zanu-PF. He said that if elected he would make sure that they act as state institutions and actually serve the interests of all Zimbabweans, saying that the leader of the country is the one who determines the culture of those institutions.^[9]

National Cohesion

He said that he was going to prioritize unifying all the citizens and building cohesion saying that for any country to succeed the people need to feel that they are one nation. This can only be achieved through servant leadership which works for the benefit of the people. He added that to run a successful country, everyone should be able to compete regardless of age.^[9]

Role of Government

Dr Moyo said that the main role of government was to create a robust and growing economy. The government should only create a good business environment but should never be both a player and a regulator in the business sector.^[9]

Forming party with Shingi Munyeza, Evan Mawarire, Trevor Ncube

Dr Moyo dismissed all claims that he had been secretly working with Shingi Munyeza, Pastor Evan Mawarire and Trevor Ncube to launch a new political party. He said all that the information on this issue was false although he did admit that he was willing to work with any Zimbabwean.^[9]

People not registering to vote or not voting

Dr Moyo disputed that Zimbabweans had voter apathy and did not believe in the electoral process. According to him people want to vote but have refrained from doing so because they were not satisfied with the options that were available to them. He added that he believes that Zimbabweans would go out to vote if there was a candidate who addressed their issues.^[9]

Endorsing Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa

Moyo denied that he had ever endorsed Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to succeed President Robert Mugabe in an interview with online publication Zimeye. He said that he had only responded to a question on whether Mnangagwa would do things differently from President Mugabe. However, he emphasised that he had never said give Mnangagwa a chance. ^[9]

Land Redistribution

Dr Moyo said that land redistribution should promote productivity by giving the farmers title to the land. That way they can access capital and be more productive.^[9]

Command Agriculture

Dr Moyo said that he did not support Command Agriculture because of the government’s involvement. He said that the government should only be involved in farming through Agricultural Extension services. He added that the private sector could support farmers without the input of government.^[9]

Gukurahundi and Unification

Dr Moyo did not address the issue of Gukurahundi expressly. However, he pointed to his own background saying that he has a Ndebele mother, a Karanga father and a Manyika wife and because of this he identified himself with all of Zimbabwe. He said one of the first ways of unifying the country was to choose a cabinet with gender, racial and tribal balance which people would see and not merely be told of.^[9]

Cabinet

According to Dr. Moyo, the current cabinet is bloated, and if elected his cabinet would have a maximum of 20 Ministers, with no deputy ministers. The Deputy Ministers would be replaced by Junior Ministers who will all be young people sitting in the cabinet.^[9]

Resignation

In October 2022, Moyo said he had resigned as APA leader due to a number of reasons chief among them faith in the ability of young people to take over.^[10]

Campaign billboards a waste

Nkosana Moyo has castigated his political rivals accusing them of wasting large sums of money on campaign billboards instead of using the resources to improve the economy for the benefit of the electorate.^[11]

Picture Gallery

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  Photo Credit: WEF

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  Photo Credit: WEF

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  Photo Credit: WEF

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  Photo Credit: WEF

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  Photo Credit: BusinessDaily

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Affiliations

Dr. Moyo is affiliated with the following companies:

• CDC Group plc
• African Development Bank
• Imperial College
• Actis Capital, LLP
• Development Finance Company of Uganda Ltd
• South African Airways SOC Limited
• Diamond Bank Plc
• Actis Africa Fund I
• UAC of Nigeria Plc
• Actis Africa Fund II
• Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University
• Kumba Iron Ore Ltd.

Trivia

• Dr.Nkosana Moyo is also a pilot.^[12]

• Dr Nkosana Moyo is the man who came up with the name Econet. When he was the CEO of Standard Chartered Merchant Bank Zimbabwe, Strive Masiyiwa approached him with a business plan to source funding. Standard Chartered was happy to fund the business.^[13] But Dr Moyo suggested that Strive should change the name of the network from Enhanced Communications Network to Econet.

References