Nelson Chamisa

Minister of Information, Communication and Technology

Date of Birth: 28/02/1978
Place of Birth: Gutu

Ethnicity: Shona-Karanga

Career: Secretary of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, 1997; founder member and national youth chairman, Movement for Democratic Change, 1999; member of Parliament for Kuwadzana through by-election, 2003; elevated to party spokesman for MDC, 2003; re-elected for Kuwadzana seat, 2005-; appointed secretary for Information and Publicity, MDC-T, 2006-; Minister of Information, Communication and Technology, 2009 to date.

Commentary: Nelson Chamisa was one of the youngest legislators when he was elected to Parliament in 2003 following the death of another former student leader, Learnmore Jongwe. He had already made his mark as a fiery speaker and student leader while at Harare Polytechnic and became the youth leader of the Movement for Democratic Change at its formation. This brought him close to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and he played a key role in mobilising youth for the party. Chamisa has been beaten, arrested and detained for his political activities but this has only served to fortify him as one of the young crop of politicians with a lot to look ahead to.

Though very close to Tsvangirai, he is often overshadowed by the secretary-general, Tendai Biti, who at times takes over his role of party spokesman, though, in some cases Biti has burnt his fingers doing so. Chamisa's post was one of the most powerful, but the ministry was split to water down its powers with the creation of the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity headed by Webster Shamu of ZANU-PF and the responsibility for telecommunications was shifted to the Ministry of Transport  under another senior ZANU-PF politician, former chief spook, Nicholas Goche. However, Chamisa is slowly maturing and is a force to be reckoned with.