From his early teens he was involved in nationalist politics, and at the age of 22 was a branch chairman of the Fort Victoria (now Masvingo) ZAPU party under Joshua Nkomo.
[2] In this position, Gumbo launched the National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) on 19 April 2006, in an attempt to revive Zimbabwe's struggling economy within six to nine months.
[4] The Herald reported 3 January 2009, that Gumbo had been dismissed from the Cabinet earlier in the week, along with 11 other ministers, because he no longer held any seat in Parliament.
Thereafter many more politicians who were said to be aligned to former Vice President Joyce Mujuru were to also be suspended and expelled.
Gumbo is a founding member and elder of a political party formed in 2015, called Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF), which disbanded after differences with Mujuru.