Rajeshkumar Indukant Modi (born 4 February 1959) is a Zimbabwean businessman and politician who is the member of the National Assembly of Zimbabwe for Bulawayo South and Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce. He previously served as the MP for the constituency and as deputy minister from 2018 until 2023. He is a member of ZANU–PF. Originally from Gujarat, India, he graduated from South Gujarat University and briefly worked for an electricity board. Modi found work at a department store in Zimbabwe and eventually opened a tuck shop. In 1999, he opened his first supermarket, eventually owning as many as twelve before selling them in 2013. He currently runs a liquor wholesale business, several manufacturing facilities, and other businesses. Modi joined ZANU–PF in the early 2000s, and went on to hold leadership roles at the district, ward, and provincial level. He was seen as an ally of Emmerson Mnangagwa amid the factional infighting within the party leading up to the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état. His election to parliament in 2018 made him the only successful ZANU–PF candidate in Bulawayo, traditionally an opposition Movement for Democratic Change stronghold. After the election, he was named to President Mnangagwa's cabinet as deputy industry and commerce minister. His appointment made him the first person of Indian origin MP in Zimbabwe and the only person of Indian origin government minister in Africa outside South Africa. Modi was defeated as a Member of Parliament by Nicola Watson of the Citizens Coalition for Change at the 2023 general election and was not reappointed to cabinet. After Watson was recalled from the National Assembly, he stood in the subsequent by-election in December 2023 and won back the seat.
Early life and education Rajeshkumar Indukant Modi was born on 4 February 1959 in Rajpipla, Gujarat, in western India. He came from a middle-class Gujarati family that sometimes struggled financially. He attended M. R. Vidyalay Primary School, followed by A. V. Patel High School in Ahmedabad. During his school years, he played basketball and field hockey. He went on to study at South Gujarat University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1981. In 1979, while still a university student, he started working as a cashier for the Gujarat Electricity Board, a job he held for two years.
Business career In March 1981, shortly after graduating, Modi married Parul Kothari, who was born in India and moved to Southern Rhodesia as a teenager in 1975. They went to Zimbabwe in September of the same year to visit his wife's adopted country. It was supposed to be a short visit—he arrived with only $50, two pairs of clothes, and a return ticket—but when his father-in-law died unexpectedly, the couple ended up staying to support Parul's mother. The loan for his plane tickets, which cost $300 and were funded by an Indian religious organization in Bulawayo, needed to be refunded, so he found work and made payments of $20 each month. His first job in Zimbabwe was at a department store in Bulawayo, where he was tasked with sweeping, mopping, cleaning windows and toilets, and delivering goods to customers' homes. Modi described his first six months in Zimbabwe as difficult. There were many cultural differences, and all his friends and family—except his wife and mother-in-law—were in India. However, he soon adjusted and became comfortable living in Zimbabwe, and eventually acquired citizenship in 1987. After eight months at the department store, Modi began working at a supermarket, where he would remain for eight years. He would walk to and from work to save up money. After six years, he pooled funds with his wife and mother-in-law and opened his own shop, Bellevue Superette. Modi continued working at the supermarket to support the household, while his wife ran the shop and worked a second job to meet the costs of growing the business. Two years later, he quit his job at the supermarket to run the shop so Parul could stay home and care for her mother, who had cancer. The Superette, which began as a tuck shop with a staff of two, grew under his direction, and in 1999, he established his first supermarket, the Bellevue Spar. He eventually opened twelve supermarkets in total, before selling his company, Sai Enterprises, to Choppies, a Botswana-based multinational grocery retailer, in 2013. He has since opened a number of new supermarkets in Zimbabwe, and owns three others in Australia. After selling his supermarkets, Modi opened a liquor wholesale business, Liquor Hub, which he continues to run. His company Pintail Trading, manufactures its own alcoholic beverages, including whisky, and is also a PepsiCo product distributor. His recent projects in 2018 included manufacturing facilities that produce alcoholic beverages, bottled water, and exercise books. In 2020, his business ventures in development included a solar energy equipment factory, a smartphone and laptop assembly plant, and a shopping complex in Bulawayo's Cowdray Park suburb, which together would employ around 1,000 people. In addition to his businesses, Modi runs the Modi Family Trust, which provides capital to small startup businesses. In 2018, he donated $40,000 to renovate the squalid Sidojiwe hostel complex in Bulawayo. He has served as chief executive officer of the Bulawayo and Matabeleland sports and recreation commissions, as a member of the Bulawayo Publicity Association finance committee, and as general manager for Bulawayo of the Zimbabwe Youth Games. He funds most of the Bulawayo teams that participate in the youth games and the Paralympic Games. Modi has won dozens of awards for his business and philanthropic activities.
Political career
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