Former Cabinet minister and diplomat, Ambassador Florence Chitauro died on Monday at the age of 75 after a stroke.

Family spokesperson Mr Thomas Chitauro said the former minister collapsed and died at her Borrowdale Brooke home.

“She had a severe stroke,” he said. “She died at her Borrowdale Brooke home while waiting for a mechanic to come and repair her vehicle. We are waiting for her brother to come and decide on the burial arrangements.”

Before her death, Ambassador Chitauro spent most of her time at her farm at Pickstone in Chegutu and would occasionally visit her Harare home.

She was married to the late former Defence Secretary and first Vice-Chancellor of Bindura University of Science Education, Dr James Chitauro, who died in April 2014 after a short illness.

In her Government career, Ambassador Chitauro was appointed non-Constituency Member of Parliament and Deputy Minister for Labour, Planning and Social Welfare in August 1990. In 1995, she entered Cabinet as Minister of National Affairs, Employment Creation and Cooperation and the following year moved back to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, as the minister.

In 1998, she was part of the taskforce on War Victims Compensation Fund, which took care of war veterans. In 2003, Ambassador Chitauro was appointed Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Australia, where she was involved in a row with the then Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, after calling him a dictator over the way he chaired a group that suspended Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth.

She retired on November 28, 2006.

Ambassador Chitauro is survived by four children. Mourners are gathered at 34 Sunriver Manors, Borrowdale Brooke in Harare.