Theresa Makone

Theresa nee Chigariro Makone is a Zimbabwean politician. She was elected to Parliament from Harare North for [[MDC-T].

Personal Details

Born: 6 October 1952, at Highfield Clinic in Harare. Her parents were Titus Chigariro, a school teacher, and a house wife mother. She is the first born in a large family of ten children, and is from Domboshava district.
Marriage: Ian Makone, who was also studying in the UK in 1974. Ian Makone was the chief advisor to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. He is an economist by profession.
Children: First daughter, Taneta was born in the United Kingdom (UK) at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
Second daughter, Nyarai, who died in 2012. ^[1]

School / Education

Primary: Mhizha Primary school in Highfield and Chirodzo Primary school in Mbare. Then Makumbe Boarding School in Domboshava.
Secondary: Monte Casino Girls High School in Macheke. She won a Rhodes Scholarship for academic excellence after her Junior Certificate and that saw her through Forms three and four. Her outstanding results at O-level won her a second scholarship, the Beit Trust Scholarship that enabled her to attend St Ignatius College, Chishawasha, where she took chemistry, biology, physics and subsidiary mathematics at A-level. She was among the first four girls to study at the former boys only school.
Tertiary: 1973, enrolled at University of Rhodesia, Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry, botany and zoology. The late Ariston Chambati and Professor Gordon Chavunduka, who both were lecturers at the then University of Rhodesian, helped her enroll at the University of Nottingham in the UK, 1974.
There she studied for a Bachelor of Science degree in Bio-Chemistry and Food Science. She later obtained a Diploma in Leadership Management from Waco University in Texas in the USA and another in International Therapy from the British Council of Aestheticienne. ^[1]

Service/Career

Business

On her return home from the UK in 1978, she joined Chibuku Breweries as the first female Development Chemist. Three years later she moved to Sterling Winthrop Pharmaceutical Company in Harare as a Quality Assurance Director before going back to the food industry as the first Chief Technologist at Cairns Foods where two years later she was promoted to the post of Research and Development Manager. She resigned from this company to open her own business beauty clinics which she still runs.

Political

Theresa Makone's poltical activism began in 1973 in the University of Rhodesia. She was arrested for taking part in a strike over the arrest of student leaders and racial discrimination and allocation of residences at the campus. She absconded university and fled to Botswana. Makone joined the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in January 2000 in Hwedza where her husband’s family have a farm in Zviyambe small scale farming community. She became the MDC branch treasurer in Zviyambe West in 2000 and worked with the Election Support Group during the elections that year and a year later was elected treasurer for Hwedza district. In the 2005 elections she stood unsuccessfully for the MDC against Zanu PF’s Aeneas Chigwedere for the Hwedza Constituency. In 2006, she was elected unopposed by all the eleven MDC districts from Chivhu to Mtawatawa as the chairperson for Tsvangirai led Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) in Mashonaland East. In 2007 she was made chairperson for National Women’s Assembly of the MDC-T. She was also appointed to handle the Ministry of Public Works portfolio. ^[1]