Josiah Zion Gumede GCLM MBE (19 September 1919 – 28 March 1989) was the first and only president of the self-proclaimed, and internationally unrecognised, state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia during 1979, before Rhodesia briefly reverted to British rule until the country's independence as Zimbabwe in 1980.

Josiah Gumede was born in Bembesi, in the Bubi District (now in Matabeleland North) of Southern Rhodesia.

He taught at various mission and government schools and ended his teaching career as a headmaster.

He was at one time general secretary for the then African Teachers' Association of Rhodesia; a member of the Wankie Disaster Relief Fund's Board of Trustees; a director of the Tribal Trust Land Development Corporation; and a board member of the National Free Library of Rhodesia.

He was also an ordained elder of the Presbyterian Church of South Africa.