Simba Makoni

On 5 February 2008, Simba Makoni held a press conference in Harare where he stated that he was challenging Robert Mugabe to become the next President of Zimbabwe. Up to that point he had remained a member of the ZANU-PF Politburo and the party's Deputy Secretary of Economic Affairs.

Since the presidential elections, Makoni has several times indicated his intention to convert his Muvambo/Kusile/Dawn formation into a formal political party. On 22 July 2008, the formation's national management committee met and agreed to finalise the transformation of the project into a political party, to be known as the National Alliance for Democracy.

From as early as 2003, was reported that Makoni was favoured by some in ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, as well as African mediators, as a potential replacement for Mugabe. In January 2008, the BBC reported that Simba Makoni might be nominated to run against Mugabe in the March 2008 presidential election. Makoni attempted to run in the concurrent 2008 parliamentary election as ZANU-PF's candidate for the House of Assembly from the constituency of Makoni Central, but he was barred from standing in the party primary (in which he would have faced then Justice Minister and current Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa); it was judged that he had submitted his curriculum vitae too late to qualify.

Makoni returned to the Cabinet as Minister of Finance by Mugabe on 15 July 2000, following the June 2000 parliamentary election. As Finance Minister, he supported the devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar, a policy that was not favoured by Mugabe, and he was replaced by Herbert Murerwa in the cabinet named on 25 August 2002.

Joseph Chinotimba, a war veteran who led the violent invasions of white owned farms in 2000, threatened Makoni with violence following the announcement of his candidature. A leading figure in ZANU-PF, Emmerson Mnangagwa, told ZBC TV that by choosing to stand for a position when the party had already chosen someone to stand for that position, Makoni had expelled himself from the party. The Herald newspaper denounced Makoni as being a pawn of the United Kingdom whose candidacy was being used in hopes of splitting the ZANU-PF vote so that Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) could win the election.

In 1983, Makoni was elected as the Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), serving in that post for ten years. A $25,000 scam that rocked SADC in 1993, resulted in the dismissal of three financial officers, who implicated Makoni. He accepted full responsibility as executive secretary, but denied any personal wrongdoing. Leaving SADC in 1994, Makoni became managing director of Zimbabwe Newspapers until 1997.

Makoni was appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture at Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, when he was thirty years old. In 1981, he was moved to the position of Minister of Industry and Energy Development, where he remained until 1983.

Simbarashe Herbert Stanley Makoni (born 22 March 1950) is a Zimbabwean politician and was a candidate for the March 2008 presidential election against incumbent Robert Mugabe. He was Minister of Finance and Economic Development in President Robert Mugabe's cabinet from 2000 to 2002. He faced strong opposition during the Economic Change in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s as his policies contradicted those of the rest of the ZANU-PF party.