Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Retired Lieutenant General Sibusiso Busi Moyo has died.
Moyo succumbed to COVID-19 in Harare on Wednesday morning.
He was 61.
In a statement announcing Moyo’s death, the Acting Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, George Charamba described the late as a decorated soldier and freedom fighter. Said Charamba:
His Excellency the President, Cde E.D. Mnangagwa, regrets to announce the passing on early this morning of Dr S.B. Moyo, our Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The late Minister succumbed to Covid-I9 at a local hospital.
The Nation will be kept apprised of further developments regarding this untimely demise of the late Minister, himself a decorated soldier and freedom fighter.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has expressed his grief over Moyo’s death in a statement posted on his social media channels. He wrote:
It is with a heavy heart that I announce Foreign Minister Dr SB Moyo has died.
Zimbabwe has lost a devoted public servant and a true hero, and I have lost a friend. He fought his entire life so that Zimbabwe could be free.
May he rest in peace.
Moyo who was the husband of ZACC Chairlady Justice Loice Matanda Moyo had reportedly been fighting a kidney ailment for some time.
Moyo became famous mostly for announcing the coup that toppled Robert Mugabe from power in 2017.
Moyo is the third minister to die from the respiratory illness since July last year, the other being Lands and agriculture minister Perrance Shiri, a former Air Force of Zimbabwe commander, and Ellen Gwaradzimba, who was the minister of provincial affairs for Manicaland.
Shiri died in July 2020 while Gwaradzimba died last week and is being buried at the National Heroes Acre in Harare on Thursday.