Vimbai is Zim’s representative in BBA

Standard People
By Melissa Mpofu Big Brother Amplified launches tonight and Zimbabweans are looking up to country representative Vimbai Mutinhiri to make history by winning the reality show.

Munya Chidzonga has do-ne the best for the country so far after he came second in last year’s show. Vimbai has a huge task and breaking this record simply means winning the show.

But, who is she?

Vimbai is the daughter of Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Services, Tracey Mutinhiri and Retired Brigadier and former Minister of Youth, Ambrose Mutinhiri. She is the last born in a family of four, her sister being Belinda from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (marketing manager for Africa) and brothers, Tinashe and Tafara who are both into farming.

She is from Harare and resides in the Mt Pleasant suburb. Belinda described her sister as God-fearing and said they attend church services at Trinity Methodist Church in Harare together. She is also an outgoing character.

“She is very outgoing but she cannot be swayed. She is not an easy pushover and she is very independent and goes for what she wants in life,” said Belinda.

Popularly known as Miss Vee by her close friends and family, Vimbai was born on February 18 in 1987 and travelled to Yugoslavia at the age of five as her father was the ambassador for Yugoslavia then. She then left Yugoslavia when she was 12 then went to St Edwards School in England. She came back to Zimbabwe when she was 15 and went to Arundel School.

Vimbai did her A-Levels at Peterhouse College then left the country for South Africa where she did a degree in Economics, majoring in politics at the University of Capetown (UCT). She learnt with Munya Chidzonga at Peterhouse and UCT.

Soon after univesity, she launched her modeling career in South Africa at the age of 21. She was a supermodel who modelled for Fashion Week and Truworths. She also featured on MTV Base and Bio Oil South Africa adverts.

 

At 23, she left modelling and returned to Zimbabwe last year and opened her own company named Leo Minerals in Harare. Besides that, she has a passion in the arts so she was one of the MC’s at the Jazz Under the Stars concert which featured Lira from South Africa. She also writes articles on fashion published on the Zimbojam website.