The Sunday Mail
Dr Walter Muchenje, a public health specialist, former chief health services administrator and retired African Development Bank employee, was a thorough, passionate and yet unassuming professional.
On Thursday afternoon August 21, 2014, at 56 Quorn Avenue, Mt Pleasant, Harare, a calm day of reflecting on retirement’s trials and tribulations turned into a tragedy that has changed the lives of two families forever — the Muchenje and Mugwagwa families.
Dr Walter Muchenje died in the hands of his life-long friend, Norbert Mugwagwa, as they dashed to the Corporate 24 Emergency Unit in Belgravia.
The doctor pronounced Walter dead on arrival at the resuscitation room at Corporate 24.
A key cog in the wheel that Walter had dedicated his life to oil let him down at his time of need!
On Sunday, a week ago, at 2.30pm, we laid Dr Muchenje to rest at Glen Forest Cemetery.
Testimonies from his close and extended families, and tributes from his friends and former work colleagues at the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Zimbabwe and African Development Bank have been pouring in throughout the week.
His Life
Walter was born on January 1 1950 in Mazowe. He was the fifth boy out of six boys in a family of nine. His father, the late Carston Muchenje, was a school teacher and his late mother, Rachel Muchenje, was a dedicated housewife and they lived at Bare Business Centre in Chiweshe.
He grew up in Mufakose where he lived with his late brother Lewis and his family. He went to primary school at Rutters Rock in Chipinge where his eldest brother Gideon was a teacher.
He went on to attend secondary school at Mazowe High before he left for tertiary education in the USA from 1970 to 1980.
He held a Master of Scinece in Biology and a PhD in Public Health from University of Pittsburgh.
He is survived by Ruvimbo and Wadzanai, his two daughters with his late wife Faith. The girls remembered their father as a loving and caring parent who did everything for them and was prepared to put his own life on hold to ensure that they got the best education in life.
He made it a point to attend all their graduation ceremonies in the US and elsewhere in the world!
His Work
In early 1980 following the formation of the Zanu-PF government and the appointment of Dr Herbert Ushewokunze as Minister of Health and Dr Simon Mazorodze as the Deputy, Dr Muchenje, accompanied by his brother David, an environmental health officer, walked into the makeshift Planning Office for the new face of the health sector in Zimbabwe.
He was introduced to me by Dr Mazorodze as additional ammunition to fire the team of Norbert Mugwagwa, Columbus Chinamo Msika and Shupai and move the process of putting in pale the new model for providing health care to the new Zimbabwe.
Under the inspiration of the fiery Herbert Ushewokunze, “this ragtag collection of professionals” pioneered what was to become one of the best health care systems in Africa.
Walter was a critical player in the design, execution and analysis of the first health facilities and nutrition survey in September 1990 funded by UNICEF.
That survey provided data that was the cornerstone of the new model for health service delivery in this country.
Walter and his colleagues did all this work without being on the State payroll.
He was appointed the chief health services administrator, a post whose roles and functions he shaped and institutionalised. In that capacity, he played a leading role in defining the nature of decentralised health service delivery in Zimbabwe and the positions of provincial health administrators and hospital administrators. He also took over the position of co-ordinator of the World Bank-funded Second Family Health Project. Walter left the ministry to join the African Development Bank in Cote d’Ivoire (1991-2003) and Tunisia (2003-2010) after dedicating 11 years of his prime life to public service.
Senior colleagues in the ministry remember Walter’s brevity and succinct writing of Planning Pool minutes in the early days.
Walter, Mungai Lenneiye and Norbert were inseparable during their years in the ministry, often described fondly (or disparagingly) as ‘‘the three musketeers’’ — one crazy, the other loud-mouthed and the third seemingly quiet — Julia Tagwireyi, Godfrey Sikipa and Evelyn Serima led the chorus on this and would gladly testify to that without bating an eyelid!
Always arguing over how best to address one health issue or another, what the future of Zimbabwe held or what needed fixing in the world was their business.
Even in retirement — Walter from ADB, Mungai and Norbert recently from the World Bank — they continued their lively, endless debates about the future of health and health services in Zimbabwe.
A few weeks before his death, they were lining up with Godfrey Sikipa and Alex Zinanga to consider how best to contribute to the improvement of health status and health care in Zimbabwe. A former permanent secretary in the Health Ministry commented that: ‘‘He leaves an unassailable legacy of hard work and dedication to public service’’.
At ADB, Walter worked as a principal public health specialist for East, Central and Southern African countries until his retirement in January 2010 after 19 years of service. Besides designing projects to finance preventive and promote health interventions, rehabilitate hospitals and health care facilities, Walter used his experience from the Zimbabwe health service to restructure health institutions on the continent.
Zondi Sakala, his former boss and a colleague, and Mutonga were quick to attest to that. The testimony noted below from his colleagues speaks for itself.
Tribute to the Man
His close family described Walter as ‘‘an educator’’ who would go to all lengths to ensure that family members went to school and got a decent education.
His in-laws recalled how he went out of his way to connect their rural home to the electrical grid.
The Bare community spoke fondly of the great deeds that Walter did from providing materials for the completion of the Salvation Army Church building to providing funds to ensure clean water.
He never turned away a person in need!
I have known Walter for 34 years and can vouch that he was a loving family man, compassionate person, fiercely patriotic and unwavering in his principles of honesty and fair play.
He was a man of integrity who would not abuse a public facility or use a public item for personal benefit — not even a ministry piece of paper!
I called him on his last day at ADB and was not surprised that he was still on his desk at 5pm! Dedication right up to the last day!
He loved me as he loved his brothers and would call me every other day as I recovered from prostate cancer treatment in 2011.
Distance wouldn’t deter him from checking on me, that persisted even after I was fully recovered.
We had plans to spend more time in our retirement — the ‘‘crazy one’’ was the last one to join us in retirement! God had other plans.
In a message read to mourners on his behalf, Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo, the Zanu-PF national chairman, in his capacity as one of Walter’s close colleagues in the Ministry of Health back in the 1980s, wrote:
“I am shocked and devastated. It sounds untrue, but coming from you it can only be the painful truth. Walter was a gift from God. A humble man, unassuming, focused and a complete personality. Zimbabwe is poorer with his absence. I am in Bulawayo and will miss the funeral. May the good Lord render his family strength and staying power. Go well, Son of the Soil.
S.K.”
His ADB colleagues described Walter as a “thorough, passionate and yet unassuming professional.”
He was a real gentleman and excellent colleague, advising and mentoring many at work and in the community.
Walter was a real gem, an inspiration and the kind of miracle we should look for among those among us and within ourselves.
Walter’s CBZ Insurance board colleagues echoed the sentiments of other professional colleagues in saluting him, noting that he came to board meetings well prepared and always willing to proffer advice. He would ask probing questions!
I join Walter’s family and colleagues in mourning a great father, uncle, in-law, friend and colleague.
Zimbabwe has lost a patriot, a beacon of decency and hard work.
Farewell, my friend. Tozoonana ikoko!
FROM
Norbert Mugwagwa
