Chronicle Editor
Harare Bureau
DEPUTY Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Mr Justin Mupamhanga has retired having served in Government for 36 years.
He told our sister paper The Herald: “While I’ve retired as a civil servant, I’ve not retired from my country. I will continue to root for and love my country just as I loved it when I left university in 1975 to join the liberation war.”
Mr Mupamhanga was active during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, with stints in key positions in Zanu and Zanla’s commissariat and education departments. On March 1, 1983, he joined the civil service in the Economics Division of the President’s Department (Central Intelligence Organisation).
He rose through the ranks to head the division in 1992 and was later elevated to the post of Deputy Director (External Intelligence). In 1994, Mr Mupamhanga was posted to London, Britain, as Minister Counsellor.
He was recalled home four years later to transform the Economics Division into the Economics Branch it is today. His brief involved creating a nexus between the branch and all the country’s economic stakeholders. He is credited with successfully establishing that envisaged rapport and turning the Economics Branch into a hub of economic analysis, research, interpretation and sounding board for policy durability.
At the time, drought stalked much of Southern Africa. His scope was then expanded to ensuring food security. Working with security forces and relevant senior civil servants, he was part of a taskforce that led efforts to import maize and avert hunger. Other taskforce members were then Air Force Commander Air Marshal Perrance Shiri (now Agriculture Minister), then Major-General Amoth Chingombe and Mr Ngoni Masoka, Secretary for Agriculture at the time.
He was on a similar assignment in 2001/2002.
Reflecting on that period, he remarked: “The taskforce had many critical officers. It was all hands to the wheel to avert people from dying of hunger. In the end, the year 2002 finished well.”
Mr Mupamhanga would be appointed Secretary for Energy and Power Development.
“The (department) faced far bigger challenges: that of resolving crippling fuel shortages and electricity availability was at its lowest ebb,” he recalled. “The ministry decided to recommend to Cabinet the liberalisation of the fuel industry. The opening up of the fuel sub-sector and especially the increased participation of indigenous players resulted in the easing of the fuel shortage.”
His next grand project was restructuring the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe. The parastatal had become inefficient and a burden on the fiscus as it subsidised fuel prices despite importing the product at market rates.
It was thus disbanded and two independent companies, the National Oil Infrastructure Company and Petrotrade, were created. “The decision by Cabinet put an end to that. The industry was now open to local and international oil companies and barring foreign currency shortages, the sector can be self-sustaining.”
Mr Mupamhanga also spearheaded the restructuring of power utility Zesa into self-contained business units. He initiated policies that encouraged investment in the energy sector and independent power producers. Further, he is credited with engendering transparency in the sector by introducing the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority.
In 2012, he was appointed Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, responsible for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Government programmes and projects. That role also encompassed monitoring the performance of the entire economy.
One of his standout assignments was superintending the Special Programme on Crops (Maize, Soya Bean and Wheat), Livestock, Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation, commonly referred to as Command Agriculture, at official level under the guidance of Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda.
He was national chairman of the Command Agriculture Taskforce since the programme’s inception in 2016, working closely with then Air Marshal Perrance Shiri (now Retired Air Chief Marshal) and then Major General Dr Sibusiso Moyo (now Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister and Retired Lieutenant General), among other senior civil servants and members of the security establishment.
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