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PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has appointed four new ambassadors to head the country’s diplomatic missions in China, India, Saudi Arabia and at the United Nations.

Career diplomat Mr Taonga Mushayavanhu is Zimbabwe’s new ambassador to the United Nations in New York while Mrs Abigail Shonhiwa becomes ambassador to China, based in Beijing.

Former senior civil servant Mr Jonathan Wutawunashe has been posted to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as ambassador while Ms Stella Nkomo is the new chief envoy to India, stationed in New Delhi.

Ambassador Jonathan Wutawunashe

In General Notice 463 of 2024 published in an Extraordinary Government Gazette yesterday, the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Martin Rushwaya said: “It is hereby notified that His Excellency the President has, in terms of Section 110 (2) (i) as read with Section 204 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, appointed Mr Taonga Mushayavanhu as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary/Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, United States of America,” said Dr Rushwaya.

The appointments of Ambassadors Wutawunashe, Nkomo, and Shonhiwa were confirmed in General Notices 464; 465 and 466 respectively.

Until his recent appointment, Mr Mushayavanhu was the principal private secretary to the President and has previously served as the chief director for multilateral cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade after a long and distinguished career in the same ministry that saw him twice serve as the ambassador to international and African organisations in Geneva and Addis Ababa.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Economic History from the University of Zimbabwe.

Ambassador Mushayavanhu has served as Ambassador or Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe to the United Nations Office, the World Trade Organisation, and other international organisations in Geneva, Switzerland.

In this capacity, Ambassador Mushayavanhu has also represented Zimbabwe on committees on human rights, democracy, governance, disarmament, elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, and trade and development.

He subsequently served as Ambassador to Ethiopia and was a permanent representative to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

Ambassador Wutawunashe was a high ranking civil servant who served as secretary for the Service Commissions until October 2022.

 He served Government for 42 years and has been known as a transformative leader who took the mantle at the helm of the Service Commissions at the onset of the Second Republic in 2018. 

Ambassador Wutawunashe tenure coincided with the establishment of the Public Service Academy – a 14-institution strong training entity that is driving the training and developing of the Government human capital into a higher performing workforce with sound ethics; the introduction of a new talent management focus backed up by a strengthened remuneration framework with more benefits accruing to the workforce.

Mrs Shonhiwa has been Zimbabwe’s ambassador to France and has held very senior positions in Government, including in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce where she was once Permanent Secretary.

Ambassador Abigail Shonhiwa

 Ms Nkomo is an academic and business executive who had hitherto, been the deputy chief executive officer at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Company.

Ambassador Stella Nkomo

She has been a board member for power utility, Zesa, a councillor at Gwanda State University, a committee member for the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe and a university lecturer.

Ambassador Nkomo is experienced in corporate strategy marketing, sales, business planning and corporate communications, with a demonstrated history of working in the events management industry. 

She graduated from the University of Zimbabwe and the National University of Science and Technology.