A famous Bulawayo medical doctor, Dr Shamiso Matekere, has succumbed to COVID-19. She passed away on Thursday in Bulawayo.
Dr Matekere was the founder of the Elite Medical Clinic situated along corner 5th Avenue and Josiah Tongogara Street.
She was also the brains behind the medical mission which for years had been targeting underprivileged rural folk who could not afford specialists health care services.
Dr Matekere’s death was confirmed by the Zimbabwe Medical Association president Dr Francis Chiwora on Friday. He said:
She was a young and hard-working cadre who succumbed to COVID-19 and there is nothing as devastating as knowing one of you died as a result of trying to save lives.
She indeed paid the ultimate price of trying to save lives and her death is nothing but a painful reminder of the havoc that this global pandemic is causing.
We are pained when we lose our patients to COVID-19 and it’s even worse when it’s one of us as we continue trying our best to save our people from this global pandemic.
Thousands of villagers from Lupane, Nkayi, and Gwanda benefited from medical outreach programmes which the late Dr Matekere facilitated with her pastor and leader of the Abundant Life Revival Mission International Church.
Abundant Life Revival Mission International Church founder and pastor, Prophet Itai Ukama said Dr Matekere’s death is a huge blow to Matabeleland as a region as she was also known for attending to patients free of charge even in Bulawayo. He said:
I had the privilege to work with her, just like her name she never ceased to surprise all of us and honestly, her death is a surprise to many, we still cannot believe she is no more.
She was not just an ordinary human being because she served wholeheartedly without expecting riches in return like some of our health practitioners.
… We have lost a daughter, someone who loved the people of Matabeleland. Villagers especially from Ndamuleni Village will grieve bitterly when they hear that their doctor has died of COVID-19.
I am devastated and as a church, we know that without her our medical outreach programmes will never be the same.