Kumbirai “Chibage” Kangai’s Widow Dies
By A Correspondent — The late senior ZANU-PF official and former Agriculture Minister Kumbirai “Chibage” Kangai’s widow, Miriam, has died. She was 69.
Mrs Kangai had been receiving treatment for lung cancer in South Africa, where she passed away. Mourners have gathered at the family home at Number 24 Glen Forest Road in Harare.
Family spokesperson Tinayo Kangai confirmed her death.
“We have lost a mother, a strong pillar of the Kangai family. Mhamha, affectionately known as The Queen, will be remembered for her ability to unite the family under the mantra kubatana ndoUnity, a strong slogan used by the late KK,” the spokesperson said.
Kumbirai Kangai died in 2013 at the age of 75. At the time of his death he was a ZANU-PF politburo member and had served in various Cabinet positions over several decades.
Kangai gained notoriety during his tenure as Agriculture Minister in the late 1990s, when he became embroiled in one of Zimbabwe’s most controversial public procurement scandals.
In 2000 he was arrested and charged with corruption related to a multimillion-dollar scandal involving the state-run Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the agency responsible for the import and export of maize — Zimbabwe’s staple crop.
Kangai, along with senior officials including the GMB’s managing director and his own ministry’s permanent secretary, was accused of awarding lucrative grain export and import contracts without proper tender procedures, undermining procurement regulations and allegedly causing significant financial loss to the state.
The charges included allegations that Kangai issued export permits and manipulated grain contracts in ways that benefited select parties, while ordinary farmers waited for payments and grain supplies became politicised.
However, in 2002 the High Court acquitted Kangai and his co-accused after the prosecution failed to present evidence sufficient to secure a conviction. The judge ruled that strong suspicions did not rise to the level of proof required for criminal conviction, leaving the case mired in public frustration and allegations of procedural mishandling.
The GMB scandal took place against a broader backdrop of Zimbabwean governance challenges in the 1990s and early 2000s, when public resources were frequently alleged to have been diverted by senior political actors while the country faced chronic food insecurity, drought, and economic hardship. Reports from that era documented irregularities in the distribution of maize and other basic commodities, with accusations that state mechanisms disproportionately benefited political elites and their cronies, leaving vulnerable citizens with inadequate access to food and essential support.
Despite widespread public outrage at the time, and police investigations that implicated Kangai and others, the lack of convictions reinforced perceptions that senior ZANU-PF officials could evade accountability. For many ordinary farmers and citizens, the scandal — and its unresolved justice outcomes — epitomised deep-rooted impunity in a political system where patronage often trumped rule of law.
