Tribute to the Veteran Zimbabwe Diplomat Stuart Comberbach

By Dr MASIMBA MAVAZA IN SWITZERLAND

Zimbabwe’s Acting President, General (Rtd) Dr. C.G.D.N. Chiwenga, has announced the passing of Ambassador Stuart Harold Comberbach, a distinguished and long-serving diplomat who dedicated over five decades to the nation’s foreign service.

Stuart Harold Comberbach (born 27 September 1952) was a Zimbabwean diplomat and politician.

He serves as Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva, Switzerland, as his last service to the nation.

Comberbach died on September 4, 2025, in the United Kingdom after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 72.

Born in Salisbury (now Harare) in 1952, Comberbach began his career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1971.

A graduate of the University of Witwatersrand, he rose through the ranks to hold several prestigious ambassadorial posts, representing Zimbabwe in Italy, Japan, and South Korea.

His final role before retiring in November 2024 was as Zimbabwe’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

The late ambassador was a soft and humble man.

I met him during A meeting in Switzerland. He was humble, soft spoken, and never walked with his position on his shoulders.

He mixed very well with everybody, and his humility came deep from his heart.

Stuart Harold Comberbach was reassigned during the reshuffle of September 2018 to serve as a Special Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade under the late Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo.

On 4 March 2021, he was deployed as the new permanent representative to the United Nations, replacing Frederick Shava, who was appointed Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

He was Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Italy from 1994 to 1999, and later Ambassador to Japan and South Korea from 2003 to 2014.

In 2014, Comberbach was named a Senior Advisor in the Office of the President and Cabinet under former President Robert Mugabe.

Born in Salisbury (today Harare), Comberbach joined the Rhodesian civil service in 1974 and is one of the few white civil servants who remained in Zimbabwe.

He was married to Benedict Ann Comberbach.

He attended the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, graduating in 1974.

After graduating from Wits University in 1974, Comberbach returned to Rhodesia and joined the civil service the same year.

He worked under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, serving in Gabon from 1975 to 1979.

From 1987 to 1994, he was the head of the Zimbabwe Trade Mission in Johannesburg, South Africa.

From 1994 to 1999, he served as Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Italy and the Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

In Rome, he served on the UN Committee on World Food Security.

He was Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Industry and International Trade from 1999 to 2002.

He offered to resign from the civil service in 2001 when he made it clear that he opposed government price control policies that he believed would destroy the Zimbabwean economy.

When Minister of Industry and International Trade Nkosana Moyo resigned unexpectedly in May 2001, Comberbach took over as temporary head of the ministry.

At the time, a communication from the US Embassy in Harare described Comberbach as “one of the few senior whites remaining in government” and “a competent technocrat.

The report noted his close relationship to leading Zanu PF politician, the late Nathan Shamuyarira, but described him as a “political lightweight.”

From 2003 to 2014, Comberbach served as the Ambassador of Zimbabwe to Japan and South Korea.

He also served as Chairman of the African Diplomatic Corps in Japan, an arm of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) from January 2003 and May 2011.

On 8 May 2015, Comberbach was honoured with the Order of the Rising Sun, along with 5 other foreign recipients, at an event held in Tokyo.

Later, a conferment ceremony was held in Harare, hosted by Japan’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Yoshi Hiraishi.

The then Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, Christopher Mutsvangwapraised Comberbach for receiving the honour.

In 2015, Comberbach’s successor as Ambassador to Japan, Air Vice-Marshal Titus Abu-Basutu.

In September 2014, the late President Robert Mugabe appointed Comberbach as Senior Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet.

His appointment was announced by Misheck Sibanda, the then Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet.

At the time, it was reported that he was one of the last white civil servants left in Zimbabwe.

He was later assigned different areas of focus within the office of the President and Cabinet: in 2015, he became the Permanent Secretary for Corporate Governance, State Enterprises, and Delivery Unit.

In September 2018, President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed new advisors, and Comberbach was assigned the new portfolio of Special Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

In a press statement, Acting President Chiwenga hailed Comberbach as an “exceptional patriot” whose unwavering commitment helped shape Zimbabwe’s international relations.

Notably, Comberbach was one of the few white citizens who chose to remain and serve in the government after the country’s independence in 1980.

The late ambassador was instrumental in advancing the Second Republic’s “Engagement and Re-engagement” policy, championing the mantra of “Zimbabwe being a Friend to All and Enemy to None.”

He played a key role in integrating international trade functions into the foreign ministry and used his extensive diplomatic network to encourage foreign investment.

Acting President Chiwenga extended heartfelt condolences on behalf of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the government, and the nation to Comberbach’s wife, Benedict Ann, and their three children, noting that his passing is a loss felt by the entire country.

He was unfailingly friendly and courteous, and he did not dodge questions, famously bluntly telling the UN press corps that he viewed the Sanctions against Zimbabwe as illegal.

He was also simply a nice guy: I can remember his amused, sympathetic smile when he saw Davos painfully fighting the opposition demonstrators.

All of the Zimbabwean delegates will remember that he didn’t forget a face, stopping to say hello even if he didn’t have time to talk.

He never looked at his colour.

Zimbabwe was his first; everything else was second.

Even when he struggles with pain, he forces himself to duty.

We had meetings in the late hours of the evening, as he took his pain killers, he would say Nothing must stop me from finishing this program, and he would chuckle softly.

Such was the determination he had towards the prosperity of his country.

He breathed his last, but his will for Zimbabwe will be strengthened by his death.

“May his dear soul rest in eternal peace,” the statement concluded.