36 Notable alumni of
University of Zimbabwe
Updated:
The University of Zimbabwe is 1335th in the world, 29th in Africa, and 1st in Zimbabwe by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 36 notable alumni from the University of Zimbabwe sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Grace Mugabe
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Grace Ntombizodwa Mugabe is a Zimbabwean entrepreneur, politician and the widow of the late President Robert Mugabe. She served as the First Lady of Zimbabwe from 1996 until her husband's resignation in November 2017, a week after he was ousted from power in the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état. Starting as a secretary to Mugabe, she rose in the ranks of the ruling ZANU–PF party to become the head of its Women's League and a key figure in the Generation 40 faction. At the same time, she gained a reputation for privilege and extravagance during a period of economic turmoil in the country. She was given the nickname Gucci Grace due to her extravagance. She was expelled from the party, with other G40 members, during the 2017 coup.
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Lucian Msamati
- Occupations
- playwrighttelevision actorstage actoractor
- Biography
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Lucian Gabriel Wiina Msamati is a British-Tanzanian actor, director, producer, and writer. He is known for his work in theatre, film, television and radio. His notable screen roles include Salladhor Saan in the HBO series Game of Thrones, J.L.B. Matekoni in the BBC/HBO adaptation of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, David Runihura in the Netflix/BBC thriller Black Earth Rising, Ed Dumani in the Sky/AMC series Gangs of London and Cardinal Adeyemi in Conclave.
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Nelson Chamisa
- Occupations
- ministerlawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Nelson Chamisa is a Zimbabwean politician and the former President of the Citizens Coalition For Change. He served as Member of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe for Kuwadzana East, Harare. Chamisa was the MDC Alliance's candidate for president in the 2018 general election, having previously been the leader of the party's youth assembly. He was the Presidential candidate for the Citizens Coalition for Change in the 2023 Zimbabwean Presidential election. He has served as the former chairperson of national youth for the same party as well as the Secretary for Information and Publicity for the opposition party MDC Alliance. In 2003, at the age of 25, Chamisa became the youngest Member of Parliament. Chamisa was also the youngest cabinet minister in Government of National Unity of Zimbabwe in 2009.
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John McDowell
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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John Henry McDowell FBA is a South African philosopher, formerly a fellow of University College, Oxford, and now university professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Although he has written on metaphysics, epistemology, ancient philosophy, nature, and meta-ethics, McDowell's most influential work has been in the philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. McDowell was one of three recipients of the 2010 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's Distinguished Achievement Award, and is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the British Academy.
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Auxillia Mnangagwa
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Auxillia Mnangagwa is a Zimbabwean politician and has served as the First Lady of Zimbabwe since November 2017, as the wife of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. After spending over ten years at the Ministry of Manpower and Development, she joined the Prime Minister's office in 1992. She was elected as a ZANU–PF Member of Parliament in 2015, serving for the same constituency as her husband after he became Vice-President under Robert Mugabe.
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Rebecca Kadaga
- Occupations
- ministerlawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga is a Ugandan lawyer and politician who served as the Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda from 19 May 2011 until 21 May 2021. She is the First Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda and the Minister for East African Community Affairs, in the Cabinet of Uganda.
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Tendai Biti
- Occupations
- politicianminister
- Biography
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Tendai Laxton Biti is a Zimbabwean politician who served as Finance Minister of Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2013. He is the second Vice President of Citizens Coalition for Change. He was the Secretary-General of the Movement for Democratic Change and the subsequent Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC-T) political parties and a Member of Parliament for Harare East until he was expelled from the party and recalled from parliament in mid-2014, before winning the seat again in 2018.
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James Manyika
- Enrolled in the University of Zimbabwe
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering
- Occupations
- partnerbusiness executive
- Biography
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James M. Manyika is a Zimbabwean-American academic consultant, and business executive. He is currently a Senior Vice President at Google-Alphabet and a member of the senior leadership team. He is also known for his research and scholarship into the intersection of technology and the economy, including artificial intelligence, robotics automation, and the future of work. He is Google's first Senior Vice President of Technology and Society, reporting directly to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. He focuses on "shaping and sharing" the company's view on the way tech affects society, the economy, and the planet. In April 2023, his role was expanded to Senior Vice President at Google-Alphabet and President for Research, Labs, Technology & Society and includes overseeing Google Research and Google Labs and focusing more broadly on helping advance Google’s most ambitious innovations in AI, Computing and Science responsibly. He is also Chairman Emeritus of the McKinsey Global Institute.
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Gideon Gono
- Years
- 1959-.. (age 67)
- Occupations
- politicianbanker
- Biography
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Gideon Gono is a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, serving from 2003 to 2013, and is the former CEO of the CBZ Bank Limited.
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Arthur Mutambara
- Years
- 1966-.. (age 60)
- Occupations
- ministerengineerpolitician
- Biography
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Arthur G.O. Mutambara is an academic and technology expert currently serving as the director and full professor of the Institute for the Future of Knowledge at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in South Africa.
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Welshman Ncube
- Occupations
- ministercivil servantpolitician
- Biography
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Welshman Ncube is a Zimbabwean lawyer, businessman and politician. He is the founding MDC leader and former President of Zimbabwean political party Movement for Democratic Change – Ncube. He currently serves within the Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC). He is a practicing lawyer in the firm Mathonsi Ncube Law Chambers, where he is the senior partner at their Bulawayo offices. He also runs a number of business ventures, including a farm in the Midlands Province.
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Robert Hayward
- Years
- 1949-.. (age 77)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Robert Antony Hayward, Baron Hayward, OBE is a British Conservative Party politician and media commentator.
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Petina Gappah
- Enrolled in the University of Zimbabwe
- Studied jurisprudence
- Occupations
- novelistjuristjournalistcommercial lawyershort story writer
- Biography
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Petina Gappah is a Zimbabwean lawyer and writer. She writes in English, though she also draws on Shona, her first language. In 2016, she was named African Literary Person of the Year by Brittle Paper. In 2017 she had a DAAD Artist-in-Residence fellowship in Berlin.
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Fadzayi Mahere
- Years
- 1985-.. (age 41)
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Fadzayi Mahere is a Zimbabwean lawyer and politician who quit as Member of Parliament for Mount Pleasant Constituency in Harare. She was the National Spokesperson for the Citizens Coalition for Change, a political party in Zimbabwe between 2022 and 2023. After a career in legal advocacy, she emerged around April 2016 first as an independent parliamentary candidate, and participated in the 2018 elections. However, in 2019 she joined MDC Alliance and subsequently won the Mount Pleasant in the 2023 harmonised elections before quitting on 26 January 2024. During the 2016–2017 Zimbabwe protests, she was arrested several times.
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Peter McLaughlin
- Occupations
- historianauthor
- Biography
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Peter McLaughlin is an Irish academic, historian, and educator. He is the CEO of Max Learning Limited, the educational arm of the Max Group. He was Headmaster of The Doon School. Before joining Doon in 2009, he served as Headmaster of Douai School, and Principal of the British International School in Cairo and of Casterton School in England. McLaughlin retired from Doon in May 2016.
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Manuel de Araújo
- Occupations
- politicianeconomist
- Biography
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Manuel A. Alculete Lopes de Araújo is a Mozambican politician who has been Mayor of Quelimane since December 2011.
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Trevor Ncube
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Trevor Vusumuzi Ncube is a Zimbabwean entrepreneur and newspaper publisher now living in South Africa and publishing in both countries. As an editor and publisher, he was a critical voice in media of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his government.
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Chenjerai Hove
- Occupations
- poetwriter
- Biography
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Chenjerai Hove, was a Zimbabwean poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both English and Shona. "Modernist in their formal construction, but making extensive use of oral conventions, Hove's novels offer an intense examination of the psychic and social costs - to the rural population, especially, of the war of liberation in Zimbabwe." He died on 12 July 2015 while living in exile in Norway, with his death attributed to liver failure.
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Tendai Huchu
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Tendai Huchu who also writes as T. L. Huchu is a Zimbabwean author, known for his novels The Hairdresser of Harare (2010), The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician (2014), and The Edinburgh Nights series.
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Tawana Kupe
- Biography
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Tawana Kupe is a Zimbabwean academic. He was the vice-chancellor of the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Prior to this appointment he held several senior positions at the University of Witwatersrand, including deputy vice-chancellor and vice-principal, where he also founded the Media Studies Department. He also lectured at Rhodes University. Before Rhodes, he worked in various academic capacities at the University of Zimbabwe.
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Frederick Shava
- Years
- 1949-.. (age 77)
- Enrolled in the University of Zimbabwe
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in biology
- Occupations
- diplomatministerpolitician
- Biography
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Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava is a Zimbabwean politician who was appointed Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology on 15 October 2024. He was formerly the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade from 2 March 2021 to 15 October 2024. He also serves as a member of the Senate representing Midlands Province, having been sworn in on 17 March 2021. He replaced the late Sibusiso Moyo in both the Senate and as foreign minister.
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Betty Makoni
- Occupations
- activist
- Biography
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Hazviperi Betty Makoni is a Zimbabwean women's rights activist who in 1999 founded the Girl Child Network, a charity which supports Zimbabwe's young sex abuse victims. The network has since expanded to the US, Europe, and various countries in Africa.
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Lulama Xingwana
- Years
- 1955-.. (age 71)
- Occupations
- politicianminister
- Biography
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Lulama "Lulu" Marytheresa Xingwana is a South African politician who served as Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities from November 2010 to May 2014. Previously she held the position of Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy from 2004 to 2006, was Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs from 2006 to 2009, succeeding Thoko Didiza, and was Minister of Arts and Culture, 2009–2010.
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Sibusiso Moyo
- Occupations
- ministermilitary personnelpolitician
- Biography
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Sibusiso Busi Moyo was a Zimbabwean politician and army Lieutenant general. He was noted for announcing the ousting of Robert Mugabe on national television during the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état. He went on to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in the cabinet of Emmerson Mnangagwa from November 2017 until his death.
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Paul Tangi Mhova Mkondo
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Paul Tangi Mhova Mkondo was a Zimbabwean nationalist who was part of the first group of Gonakudzingwa restriction camp political prisoners. He was also a pioneer insurance executive, business magnate, academic, philanthropist, conservationist, pioneer Indigenous businessman and entrepreneur.
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Xoliswa Sithole
- Occupations
- filmmakerfilm directorfilm producerfilm actor
- Biography
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Xoliswa Sithole is a South African actress and documentary filmmaker, raised in Zimbabwe. she won a BAFTA in 2004 for her documentary Orphans Of Nkandla. She won a Peabody Award in 2010 and a BAFTA in 2011 for her documentary Zimbabwe's Forgotten Children.
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Levi Nyagura
- Occupations
- mathematician
- Biography
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Levi Martin Nyagura is a Zimbabwean academic. He was appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe in January 2003 and was subsequently reappointed for a second, third and a fourth term, the latter of which ended in mid 2018.
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Thokozani Khuphe
- Occupations
- politicianminister
- Biography
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Thokozani Khupe is a Zimbabwean politician, trade unionist and CCC party member. She was Deputy Prime Minister 2009–13.
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Jessie Majome
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Fungayi Jessie Majome was a Member of the National Assembly of the Parliament of Zimbabwe for Harare West constituency on an MDC-T ticket elected 1st in 2008 and then in 2013. She was the Chairperson of Parliament of Zimbabwe's Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. She was a member of the Parliamentary Legal Committee and the Portfolio Committee on Local Government Rural and Urban Development. During Zimbabwe's constitution making process of 2009 to 2013 she was a member of the 25 member Parliamentary Select Committee (COPAC) on the new Constitution established by the political settlement Global Political Agreement. She served as its Spokesperson and Co-Vice Chairperson.
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Virginia Mabiza
- Occupations
- diplomatlawyer
- Biography
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Virginia Mabiza, is a Zimbabwean lawyer and politician in Zimbabwe. In 2018 she was permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
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Mike Nicholas Sango
- Occupations
- diplomatmilitary personnel
- Biography
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Mike Nicholas Sango is a Zimbabwean diplomat, Major general (rtd) and Zimbabwe's ambassador to Russia. He served in the Zimbabwe Liberation War as a member of the ZANLA from 1975 to 1980, which led to the country's attainment of independence and multiracial democracy.
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Pride Chigwedere
- Years
- 1974-.. (age 52)
- Occupations
- scientistphysician
- Biography
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Pride Chigwedere, a Zimbabwean national, is a Harvard trained physician-scientist working in global health. He is most notable for leading a team of Harvard researchers who demonstrated that South African President Thabo Mbeki's AIDS policies led to more than 300 000 deaths. While South Africa's policies were condemned by many, Chigwedere's contribution was in developing and applying methods to quantify the impact of the policies thus demonstrating the calamitous consequences of AIDS denialism. Generalized, he developed an approach for evaluating public health practice and highlighted the need to develop a framework for accountability in public health. Drawing from the analogy with medicine, he has proposed the concept of public health malpractice to capture negligence that causes harm as a useful first step towards accountability in public health. A response to Chigwedere's work by AIDS denialists led by Peter Duesberg was initially published by the non-peer-reviewed journal Medical Hypotheses followed by a retraction because of poor quality of data, undeclared conflicts of interest, and potential effects on global health.
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Julian Harston
- Occupations
- civil servant
- Biography
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Julian Harston, son of Colonel Clive Harston, King's African Rifles, is an independent consultant on International Peace and Security matters. He retired as an Assistant Secretary-General in the United Nations. His last post was as the Representative of the Secretary-General in Belgrade, Serbia. Prior to this until March 2009 he was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General heading MINURSO Western Sahara.
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Tonderai Kasu
- Born in
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Zimbabwe - Enrolled in the University of Zimbabwe
- 1999-2004 graduated with Doctor of Medicine in medicine
- Occupations
- municipal clerkofficialbusiness consultantresearcherphilanthropist
- Biography
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Tonderai Kasu is a community and corporate leader in Zimbabwe. A medical doctor by training, he was the substantive Director of Health and Environmental Services for Chitungwiza, and has been the Acting Town Clerk or Acting Chief Executive, of the Chitungwiza Municipality.
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Henry Mwandumba
- Occupations
- scientist
- Biography
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Henry Charles Mwandumba is a Malawian Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme. He works on the tuberculosis phagosome in the University of Malawi College of Medicine, and serves as President of the Federation of African Immunological Societies. In 2019 Mwandumba was awarded the Royal Society Africa Prize.
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Oppah Muchinguri
- Years
- 1958-.. (age 68)
- Occupations
- politicianminister
- Biography
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Oppah Chamu Zvipange Muchinguri-Kashiri is a Zimbabwean politician who serves as minister of defence in the cabinet of Zimbabwe since 2018. She has also served as Minister of Higher Education and Minister of Women's Affairs. Muchinguri ran as the ZANU-PF candidate for Mutasa Central constituency in the March 2008 parliamentary election, but was defeated by Trevor Saruwaka of the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai. According to official results, Muchinguri received 4,764 votes against 9,228 votes for Saruwaka.
