Simon Vengai Muzenda (28 October 1922 – 20 September 2003) was a Zimbabwean politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987 and as Vice-President of Zimbabwe from 1987 to 2003 under President Robert Mugabe.
[1] A relatively bright child, he was sent for teacher training after spending his teenage years herding in Makonese Village under Chief Nyamandi, and, following the advice of his tutor, travelled to the Marianhill mission in Natal, South Africa, where he showed proficiency in carpentry.
After marrying his wife Maud, a nurse, Muzenda moved to the Midlands town of Mvuma in 1955 and started his own carpentry business; he also stayed active in political activism and eventually become administrative secretary of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), attracting the attention of Rhodesian security forces and being imprisoned in Salisbury Central Prison for two years, which he described as a "place of study" later in his life, as it gave him and his fellow inmates the opportunity to complete their educations.
During the years of Mugabe's rule, Muzenda always gave unreserved backing to the president, even when the regime began muzzling the independent press, curb the activities of foreign correspondents and crushing political opposition.
Two weeks before his death, Zimbabwe's state-owned media dismissed reports that he was in declining health, instead announcing that he was making "remarkable progress" towards a full recovery.