Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sibusiso Moyo has died from COVID-19, the government announced on Wednesday.
He gained prominence in 2017 as the military general who announced the coup against then-President Robert Mugabe on television.
Moyo, 61, previously little known to the public, became the face of the coup when he announced the military had placed Mugabe under house arrest as armoured vehicles rolled into the capital, Harare.
The coup ended Mugabe’s 37-year rule in Zimbabwe. Mugabe died in September 2019.
Moyo was appointed foreign affairs minister after President Emmerson Mnangagwa took power with military backing.
He “succumbed to COVID-19 at a local hospital” on Wednesday, Mnangagwa’s spokesman, George Charamba, said in a statement.
Zimbabwe is experiencing a resurgence of the disease, with record numbers of daily confirmed cases and deaths.
Mnangagwa on Thursday is set to bury another Cabinet minister, Ellen Gwaradzimba, who died from COVID-19 last week.
Source: Al Jazeera