Online Reporter
Masimba Mavaza
Correspondent
TRUE to the old adage, the earth has an insatiable appetite.
But it feels cruel because the earth is feeding on the very men who swore to save nations.
On August 15, 2026, a founding father of specialist obstetrics and gynaecology in Zimbabwe. Dr Booker Kambarami, laid down his scalpel for the last time aged 76.
Known to his colleagues as “Mr Perfect,” Dr Kambarami was the man whose hands delivered generations and turned “no hope” into “Amai waTariro.”
And with his passing, a floodgate of grief and memory has opened.
Because to mention Dr Kambarami is to hear the echo of footsteps in the corridors of Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals. Footsteps of giants who are no longer walking among us.
Oh Zimbabwe, who will deliver us now?
We remember Professor James Gita Hakim — the heart that understood hearts. Cardiologist. HIV warrior. The brain behind so much of our fight. Gone January 2021.
We remember Dr Tapiwanashe Rameck Bwakura — gentle giant of internal medicine, who held the hands of the sick even as cancer took his own. Gone January 2022, aged 62.
We remember Professor Herbert Mapfumo Chinyanga — the pioneer who taught a nation how to put patients to sleep and wake them up safely again. He left us on July 2 2026.
We remember Professor Laurence Fraser Levy — the neurosurgeon who taught Zimbabweans how to operate on the human brain. Gone 2007.
We remember Dr McLeod Ernest Chitiyo — our first black pathologist. The man who taught us to read the story of disease in a slide. Gone 2015.
We remember Dr Ahmed Bilal Shah — doctor by day, teacher to the nation by night on our TVs. Gone June 2021.
We remember Dr Tichafa Samuel Parirenyatwa — the first. He died at 35 in 1962, but his name still hangs over our biggest hospital.
We remember Dr Ngoni Joseph Gwavava — 1944 to 1998. Pathologist, founding father of the Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry. The prize in his honour is still won by the best of the best.
We remember Dr Godfrey Gwaze Sikipa, Dr Tendai Mutwira, Dr Charles Marx.
We remember Dr Herbert Ushewokunze, Zimbabwe’s first Minister of Health.
We remember Dr Timothy Stamps, 16 years as Minister of Health.
We remember Dr Office Samson Chidede, former permanent Secretary and obstetrician.
We remember Dr Christopher Tapfumanei, Dr Davison Sadza, Dr Felix Muchemwa.
One by one. Ward by ward. Department by department. The earth has taken them all.
These were not just doctors. They were builders. They came back in 1980. They stayed through war, through sanctions, through cholera, through HIV, through everything. They could have left. They chose to bleed with us.
Dr Kambarami was one of them. He did not just deliver babies. He delivered hope.
When your womb felt like a grave, he spoke life into it.
When your marriage was breaking under the weight of barrenness, he sat with you, prayed with you, and then placed a crying child in your arms.
Millions passed through his hands. And now those hands are still.
So tonight Harare feels hollow.
The maternity wards feel quieter.
The lecture theatres feel emptier.
Because the men and women who taught us how to live have gone home.
But they did not die in vain, their legacy is not in marble, but in the child who calls you “Amai”.
It is in the doctor who hears “Mr Perfect” in his head before he cuts.
It is in every heartbeat, every breath, every life they touched.
The earth may have an appetite. But Zimbabwe has a memory. And we will not forget.
To Dr Booker Kambarami and to all the fallen healers: You gave us life. Now rest. We will carry the torch.
Zimbabwe hopes that other doctors will learn a lot from Dr Kambarami.
The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health and Child Care in Zimbabwe is Dr. Aspect Maunganidze remarked: “Indeed. He taught us real clinical practice with compassion, humility and empathy.” May their dear souls rest in eternal peace.
