Tinotenda Hove- Family, colleagues, former pupils and health professionals gathered in Greendale, Harare this week to honour the life of National Hero Professor Herbert Mapfumo Chinyanga, the trailblazing anaesthetist credited with shaping medical training in Zimbabwe.

Professor Chinyanga passed away on July 2 while undergoing treatment in South Africa. President Emmerson Mnangagwa later declared him a National Hero in recognition of his decades of service to the country’s health system.

Known widely as the Father of Anaesthesia in Zimbabwe, Chinyanga came back from Canada in 1985 and set up the nation’s first postgraduate anaesthesia training program. That initiative became the base for producing specialist anaesthetists locally.

Beyond his work in anaesthesia, he was instrumental in building medical faculties at the University of Zimbabwe, NUST and Midlands State University. Over the years he guided and taught countless doctors and other health workers who now serve across the country.

Those who spoke at the memorial described him as a forward-thinking mentor whose commitment to medicine, teaching and public duty reshaped Zimbabwe’s healthcare landscape.

Following his death, Professor Chinyanga was cremated. His ashes are set to be laid to rest at Etosha Cemetery in Goromonzi on Saturday, August 1.