Perrance Shiri (born Bigboy Samson Chikerema; 11 January 1955[2][3] – 29 July 2020)[4] was a Zimbabwean air officer and government official who served as Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe from 1 December 2017 until his death on 29 July 2020.

[12] In 2002, in response to the subsequent food shortage, Mugabe dispatched Shiri to South Africa to purchase maize.

This undertaking was backed by a credit note for the equivalent of £17 million from the Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi.

[7] With the Mugabe government facing increasing problems, the Zimbabwean press reported in February 2007 that Shiri was regularly attending General Solomon Mujuru’s unofficial meetings with other senior military commanders and some political leaders.

[13] In 2008 some Zimbabwean lawyers and opposition politicians from Mutare claimed that Shiri managed military assaults on illegal diggers in the diamond mines in the east of Zimbabwe.

In a remark aimed against the Movement for Democratic Change, the defence chiefs stated that it would be a criminal act for anyone to declare himself the winner of the election.

[17] It has been speculated that the assassination attempt was a response to Shiri's attacks on illegal diamond miners in 2008 or because of his role in Matabeleland in the 1980s.