Aeneas Chigwedere, Zimbabwe’s former education minister, died from COVID-19 complications on Friday, his family confirmed.
The 81-year-old passed away at his farm near Marondera town in the Mashonaland East province.
David Musabayana, Zimbabwe’s deputy foreign affairs minister, also confirmed Chigwedere’s death and extended condolences to the family.
An eminent historian, Chigwedere was a traditional chief in his native area in Mashonaland East and previously served as governor of the province.
“The educator, the historian, rest in power former education minister Aeneas Chigwedere,” Elias Mambo, publisher of news outlet Zim Morning Post, said on Twitter.
The pandemic has claimed the lives of several politicians in Zimbabwe, including Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo, who died of COVID-19 complications earlier this week.
Ellen Gwaradzimba, minister of provincial affairs for Manicaland Province, and Morton Malianga, Zimbabwe’s deputy finance minister in the 1980s, also succumbed to the disease last week.
