Secretary-General Appoints Masimba Tafirenyika as Director of United Nations Information Centre in Pretoria

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Masimba Tafirenyika of Zimbabwe as Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Pretoria, an office that provides service to South Africa.  Mr. Tafirenyika assumed his duties today.

Mr. Tafirenyika was most recently Chief of the Africa Section in the United Nations Department of Public Information and Editor-in-Chief of its Africa Renewal magazine, since 2009.  Previously, he served as Officer-in-Charge of the Pretoria information centre from 2008 to 2009, and as Deputy Director from 2006 to 2008.

He joined the Department of Peacekeeping Operations as a Research Analyst in 1996.  He served as a Public Information Officer with the Department of Public Information from 2004 to 2006; as Desk Officer for Liberia and Sierra Leone in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at United Nations Headquarters from 2003 to 2004; as Head of Publications with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone from 2001 to 2003; and as Associate Political Affairs Officer with the United Nations Office in Liberia from 1998 to 2001.

Mr. Tafirenyika was an Associate Third World Visiting Researcher for a Georgetown University research programme run by the Center of Concern in Washington, D.C., from 1992 to 1993.  Prior to this, he worked as the Research Coordinator for the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, from 1985 to 1992.  He has also worked as a freelance journalist, based in Zimbabwe, writing on political and economic development issues for various publications around the world.

He has a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in the United States and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Zimbabwe.