Cimas Health Group chief executive officer Vulindlela Ndlovu has called for a healthcare system that places equality, accessibility and affordability at the centre of service delivery in Zimbabwe.
Ndlovu made the remarks on Wednesday during the renaming of the CIMAS Medical Centre in Bulawayo to the Sipho Zwana Medical Centre, in honour of pioneering medical doctor Dr Sipho Zwana.
His remarks come as Zimbabwe’s health sector continues to grapple with rising healthcare costs, constrained resources and inequalities in access to services.
A 2026 analysis by the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights identified constrained public financing, workforce shortages and service delivery inequalities among the challenges facing the country’s health system.
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He said Zwana’s legacy should serve as a reminder that healthcare was fundamentally about serving people, regardless of whether the work received recognition.
“The highest form of care is care that does not require you to be conscious of it Nobody celebrates a medical aid on a good morning. Nobody thanks a laboratory, or a claim that simply worked,” Ndlovu said.
“Our best days are our invisible days-the emergency quietly covered, the surgery that simply proceeded, the family not ruined by an illness they could never have predicted.”
Ndlovu said CIMAS, which is marking its 80th anniversary, had a responsibility to remain focused on making a difference in people’s lives through healthcare.
He said the organisation’s work was similar to that of an anaesthetist, whose contribution often went unnoticed despite being critical to a patient’s wellbeing.
“The anaesthetist stands at the head of the bed, in the dark, holding a stranger’s life at the exact point between too much and too little, for hours, and when it is over the patient opens their eyes and thanks somebody else,” he said.
Ndlovu said Zwana embodied this philosophy of service throughout his 52-year career in Zimbabwe and abroad.
He noted that the decision to name the facility after Zwana should go beyond commemorating an individual and instead preserve the values he represented.
“A naming is infrastructure for memory. It is the deliberate act of placing a story where it cannot be quietly lost. Today, we simply put a name to what that looks like. Together, we can make a difference,” Ndlovu said.
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