Online Reporter
Herald Correspondent
The ashes of National Hero Professor Herbert Mapfumo Chinyanga will be interred today at Etosha Cemetery in Goromonzi, following a memorial service in Greendale yesterday where senior Government officials, leading academics and members of the medical fraternity gathered to pay their final respects.
In line with his wishes, Prof Chinyanga was cremated in South Africa following his death in Johannesburg on July 2 at the age of 86. His late wife, Esi Agnes Chinyanga (née Okai), who died in 2022, was also cremated as per her wishes.
President Mnangagwa conferred national hero status on Prof Chinyanga in recognition of his groundbreaking service to the nation’s health sector, where he single-handedly built the foundation for postgraduate specialist training in anaesthesiology.
Delivering a speech on behalf of Health and Child Care Permanent Secretary Dr Aspect Maunganidze, Dr Maxwell Hove, Director of Pathology Services in the Ministry expressed deep gratitude to the Chinyanga family for allowing the nation and the medical profession to honour the late icon.
“This gathering is a fitting tribute to a distinguished pioneer whose contribution to medical education and the development of Zimbabwe’s health sector will endure for generations,” Dr Maunganidze said.
“He was a distinguished medical practitioner, educator, institution builder, patriot, and visionary whose contribution to the health and well-being of our people will endure for generations.
“His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, has fittingly declared Professor Chinyanga a National Hero in recognition of his immense contribution to the health of the people of Zimbabwe, his patriotism and his unwavering commitment to the motherland.
“This recognition affirms that heroism is not defined only by service on the battlefield. It is also demonstrated through the selfless application of knowledge, the building of institutions, the development of future generations and the creation of systems that continue to serve the nation long after one has departed.”
Delivering the obituary, anaesthesiologist and critical care specialist Dr Letwin Masirembu — one of Prof Chinyanga’s former students — traced his remarkable journey.
Born in Gwelo, now Gweru, on 26 July 1939 to a police sergeant, Prof Chinyanga attended Daramombe Mission and Goromonzi Government School before entering the University of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1958.
In 1960 he earned a World Health Organization scholarship to study medicine at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, graduating with an MSc in Physiology and an MD in 1969.
After lecturing in Ghana, where he met his late wife, he moved to Canada in 1973 for specialist training at the University of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, qualifying as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada in 1978.
Despite an enviable international career, Prof Chinyanga returned home in 1985 to join the University of Zimbabwe, where in 1986 he established the country’s first postgraduate Diploma and Master of Medicine programmes in Anaesthetics.
“Zimbabwe now has physician anaesthetists because of his dedication, and surgery in the country is safer today because of his work,” Dr Masirembu said.
Beyond UZ, where he served twice as Chairman of the Department of Anaesthetics and as Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor, Prof Chinyanga played a pivotal role in establishing the medical schools at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo and Midlands State University in Gweru. He was awarded Professor Emeritus status by UZ in 2007.
UZ Deputy Dean of Medicine Professor Jephat Chifamba remembered Prof Chinyanga as a master educator who combined intellectual rigour with warmth and humour.
“His lectures in neurophysiology were delivered with remarkable clarity, precision, and depth,” Prof Chifamba said, recalling how Prof Chinyanga used innovative practical demonstrations to make complex scientific principles unforgettable for generations of doctors.
In 1989, Prof Chinyanga led the anaesthetic team for Zimbabwe’s pioneer open-heart surgery programme in partnership with Loma Linda University.
He also served as President of the Zimbabwe Anaesthetic Association, Chairman of the Central African Journal of Medicine, and sat on the boards of the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe and the Research Council of Zimbabwe.
Prof Chinyanga retired in December 2024 after more than five decades of public service. He is survived by his son Farayi, daughter-in-law Cora Thokolize, and three grandchildren, Seth, Samuel and Vhenekayi.
Predeceased by his wife Esi Agnes, he is survived by his son Farayi, daughter-in-law Cora Thokolize, and three grandchildren.
