Edward Dube has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since April 2013. He is the first Zimbabwean and the second black African to be a general authority. Dube was born in Chirumanzu, Zimbabwe to Clement Dube and his wife, Rosemary. Dube was first introduced to the LDS Church when his employer, Leaster Heath, who he worked for as a servant, gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. Dube first attended an LDS Church meeting in the Kwekwe Branch in February 1984, where he initially felt uncomfortable, feeling as if he was "in a servant relationship with most of the members of the branch". That quickly changed as he and branch members were able to share feelings about the Book of Mormon. He was baptized in August 1984. Dube has a diploma in education from the Zimbabwe D. E. College and studied entrepreneurship at the University of South Africa. Dube then worked for the Church Educational System, eventually serving as a country director for Zimbabwe and in other administrative positions. He also oversaw the expansion of seminaries and institutes into Zambia and Malawi.
LDS Church service
Dube served as a full-time missionary for the church from 1986 to 1988. He initially served in the church's South Africa Johannesburg Mission, which at the time included Zimbabwe, and then in the newly created Zimbabwe Harare Mission when the mission was split in 1987. Dube has served in the LDS Church as a branch president, district president and counselor in a mission presidency. In 1999, Dube became president of the first stake organized in Zimbabwe. From 2009 until 2012, he served as president of the Zimbabwe Harare Mission. He was made an area seventy in 2012 and served for a year prior to becoming a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy on 6 April 2013. Dube was the first Zimbabwean to serve as a mission president. In August 2013, Dube began serving as second counselor in the presidency of the church's Africa West Area. In October 2013, Dube spoke in general conference. In his talk Look Ahead and Believe he reminded Latter-day Saints that "In the sight of the Lord, it is not so much what we have done or where we have been but much more where we are willing to go." In August 2018, Dube became first counselor in the presidency of the Africa West Area. In November 2018, he participated in the groundbreaking of the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple.
Personal life
Among those he taught as a missionary was the family of Naume Keresia Salazini, although she was later baptized by her brother who had previously joined the LDS Church. After his mission, Dube renewed his acquaintance with Salazini and they were married in 1989 in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe. They were sealed in the Johannesburg South Africa Temple in 1992. They are the parents of four children.
