On 9 October 2017, he was appointed as Minister of the newly created Ministry of Cyber Security, Threat Detection and Mitigation. On 27 November 2017, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who succeeded Robert Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe following the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état, appointed Chinamasa as the nation's acting Finance Minister. He was substantively returned to his portfolio as Minister of Finance and Economic Development in Mnangagwa's first cabinet on 30 November 2017.