Elton Steers Mangoma

Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister

Education: Goromonzi High School; Bachelors degree in Accountancy and Masters in Business Leadership.

Career: 1978-1982, Deputy General Manger, Deloitte & Touche; 1982-1987, Colgate Palmolive; 1987-1992, Group Finance Director, Delta Corporation; 1990, President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe; 1992-1994, Mangement Consultant, Hunyani Holdings; 1995-1999, Kudenga & Co.; 1999, founding member of the Movement for Democratic Change; since 2000, Managing Director, Corporate Excellence. National Assembly Member for Makoni Central, 2008; February 2009, Minister for Economic Planning and Investment Promotion. Mangoma is also the MDC's Deputy Treasurer and Acting Treasurer.

As Economic Planning Minister, Elton Mangoma is jointly responsible with Finance Minister Tendai Biti for the power-sharing government's economic recovery programme. It is an effective partnership that combines Mangoma's management experience in several manufacturing companies with Biti's track record as a campaigning lawyer and astute political strategist.

Their differing styles were on show in London on 22-26 June 2009 as the Harare government's international roadshow, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, sought to convince Western governments and businesses that the new order was serious about economic and political reform. Mangoma addressed the traditional corporate concerns about regulations and state interference while Biti was happier discussing the political implications of the economic reform programme and the 'irreversible' policy shifts that the government has made.

Biti has used his Finance post to chip away at entrenched political patronage while Mangoma, closer in temperament and politics to Tsvangirai, has been quietly convincing companies of the real prospects of Zimbabwe's economic revival. Mangoma is a chartered accountant and married with three children.