Jorum Gumbo

Service/Career

Gumbo was elected Member of Parliament for Mberengwa West in an election where he had to contest with his own brother, Tinashe Gumbo who was the representative for Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC. ^[1] He served as a Member of parliament for Mberengwa West Constituency. However, Tafanana Zhou has held that position since 23 August 2023. Prior to this, Tafanana was the MP for [Mberengwa]] North Constituency until the ZEC Delimitation exercise moved him to Mberengwa West. In the 2018 elections, Joram Gumbo was re-elected with 10 337 votes.

At the ZANU PF 6th National People's Congress he was appointed Zanu-Pf politburo member as secretary for education taking over from Sikhanyiso Ndlovu. ^[2]

Joram Gumbo was a Minister of [[Ministry of Energy and Power Development|Minister of Energy and Power Development]. He was replaced by Fortune Chasi in May 2019.

On 27 September 2023, Gumbo was appointed as Special Advisor to the President and responsible for Monitoring the Implementation of Government Programmes. The Special Advisor would provide advice and independent coverage of the status of project implementation countrywide. ^[3]

Events

"Manhandled" Brother

During the July 2013 Elections, it was alleged by the media, that Gumbo manhandled his brother, Tinashe Gumbo of the MDC-T. Chief Matyebadza in Midlands Province called for a meeting which was meant to give all political players in the 2013 election, a platform to address the community on peace during the elections. It is alleged that Gumbo came and wanted to turn it into a campaign rally for his party resulting in a protest by other political party representatives. Tinashe Gumbo then instructed MDC-T supporters to leave after the chief had failed to calm down Jorum Gumbo. When Gumbo realized that almost everyone at the meeting was MDC he confronted his brother, violently pushed and manhandled him until supporters intervened. ^[1]

Zimbabwe Airways Scandal

In May 2018 Jorum Gumbo admitted he initially lied about who had purchased the new Zimbabwe Airways planes.

We then got advice that to make sure that the planes would not be impounded, we had to cancel the agreement that we had entered into as Air Zimbabwe and come up with another name. That is when we revisited the paperwork and used the Government-registered company namely Zimbabwe Airways in order to circumvent this problem…That is when we also came up with the story that the diasporans were buying the aircraft. That is why I said we now have to explain exactly why we did that. It was only to save our situation otherwise we could have lost the money as the country and Government.

^[4]

Arrest by ZACC

On 4 November 2019 Jorum Gumbo was arrested for criminal abuse of office by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission. This was in relation to shady Air Zimbabwe deals conducted during his time as transport minister. ^{[5] [6]}

Farm Mechanisation Scheme

In July 2020, Joram Gumbo was listed, in the BSR of 18 July 2020, as a beneficiary in the 2007 RBZ Farm Mechanisation Scheme, as a result of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme.

The data is analysed by recipients origin:.

• Mashonaland provinces had the most beneficiaries, both in terms of numbers and value.
  

Mashonaland East got US$47,5 million,
Mashonaland West US$44,7 million
Mashonaland Central had US$34,2 million.

• Two Matebeleland provinces had a combined total of US$13,9 million.
• Masvingo US$26,4 million,
• Manicaland US$18 million
• Midlands US$14 million.

Joram Gumbo is listed under the thematic group “Politicians”. According to the list, he got a loan of US$39,869.00. ^[7]

References