Online Reporter
Sifelani Tsiko-Innovations Editor
Veteran urologist and specialist surgeon Mr Christopher Samkange has been awarded with an honorary fellowship by the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) — the largest surgical training institution in Sub-Saharan Africa for his remarkable career and unwavering dedication to advancing surgical practice on the continent.
He was honoured at the annual conference which was held recently in Harare to mark the 25th anniversary of COSESCA.
“For us as local surgeons, it is a great honour to have Mr Samkange, one of our senior surgeons getting such an honour when the college was celebrating its Silver Jubilee Anniversary,” said cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon who is the president of the Surgical Society of Zimbabwe Dr Wilfred Muteweye.
“Only three eminent surgeons received the honour at the 25th anniversary conference. The other two are international surgeons. It is a huge honour to be chosen as one of the three among thousands of accomplished surgeons in the college.”
Mr Samkange was honoured for the role he played together with the other founding members of the college to drive the development and growth of COSECSA.
“COSECSA has grown in leaps and bounds and we now have 1 048 surgeons of various surgical disciplines who have been trained and certified over the past 25 years. Today, COSECSA is now the largest surgical training block with 14 African countries as full members and seven countries as satellite members,” said Dr Muteweye.
COSECSA covers a population of over 470 million people.
Mr Samkange was involved in the making of the blueprints of the college from 1996.
He used the experience he garnered from other established colleges to help set up the Sub-Saharan college.
The renowned urologist mobilised financial support for the college both locally and abroad and when COSECSA finally came into existence in 1999, he was one of the few founding fellows.
In 2011, he was elected to be the president of COSECSA and led the college until 2012 when his term ended.
He was the first Zimbabwean to hold such a high office and was the sixth president of the college.
The only other local surgeon to head the COSECSA was Prof Godfrey Muguti who headed the college between 2020 and 2022.
Since its founding in 1999, COSECSA has made an impact by training and certifying over 1 048 surgical specialists across Africa.
Zimbabwe now has 205 surgeons who hold the distinguished COSECSA fellowship certification up from only five in 1999.
The college has successfully trained specialist surgeons in crucial areas that were previously scarcely manned such as orthopaedic surgery, paediatric surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and more.
The country, today, boasts of an array of specialists that are enhancing the efficiency and quality of the healthcare system.
COSECSA is an independent body that fosters postgraduate education in surgery and provides surgical training throughout East, Central and Southern Africa.
The college now has 14 full members (including Botswana, Namibia, Sudan and South Sudan).
Zimbabwe and most other African nations in the East, Central, and Southern regions are making significant strides in retaining crucial health specialists, particularly surgeons.
Mr Samkange and other founding members played a crucial role in fostering South-South co-operation and strengthening regional collaborations to push up the number of skilled surgical professionals.
At the just ended conference, a total of 138 surgeons were conferred with certifications in nine surgical fields, including general surgery, urology, paediatric surgery, paediatric orthopaedic surgery, orthopaedic oncology surgery, orthopaedic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, plastic surgery, and neurosurgery.
“I was touched that my colleagues appreciated the efforts I had been putting into the college from its conception,” said Mr Samkange.
“After the event, so many people from the member countries came to congratulate me and I was so humbled by the honour as a Zimbabwean. It puts me on a par with previous fellows who I regarded as legends of the college.”
Mr Samkange was born in 1954 in the Goromonzi District of Mashonaland East.
He started his primary education at Chaka Primary School and later finished at Bumburwi Primary School in Gweru.
He went to Fletcher High School in 1968 for his secondary education. He was head boy and excelled as a school tennis captain and public speaking champion.
The eminent medical practitioner enrolled for his first medical degree at Cambridge University, England in 1974.
He later attained an MA at the same university before embarking on a specialist surgical training.
Mr Samkange obtained his postgraduate fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and returned home in 1987, joining the Department of Surgery at the University of Zimbabwe.
His main interest was medical education and three years later he joined the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital, London.
He did the renal transplantation programme from 1990 to 1991.
On his return to UZ, he made a lateral transfer to the Institute of Continuing Health Education (ICHE), where he made his mark rapidly expanding and refining postgraduate training in all medical disciplines.
By the time he retired from the department in 2020, UZ was now offering 13 specialist postgraduate degree courses in addition to certificate courses and staff development training in medical education.
In 1992, Mr Samkange became a member of the UZ Senate where for more than 15 years he represented the Senate in the Academic Committee of the university.
He held various positions in local, regional and international organisations.
The eminent urologist was elected into the inaugural Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Council and served two terms.
He was the chief trainer who initiated and ran the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision programme when he was also a member of the WHO TAG committee on VMMC.
He also served on the Parirenyatwa Hospital Board, the National Research Board and chaired the ZOU University Council for two terms.
In between, he led the East, Central and Southern Africa medical outreaches to Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi under the aegis of the ECSA Health Community.
In his own discipline, he was the inaugural president of the Association of the Urological Society of Zimbabwe and was a founding Fellow of COSECSA on whose council he sat for 14 years, rising to become president from 2012 to 2013.
Prior to that, in 2011 he was elected president of the Pan African Association of Surgical Colleges and Associations.
He won a number of accolades, including an honorary fellow in urology of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa in 2011.
Mr Samkange enjoys sports — tennis, Formula One and soccer, as well as photography and reading.
He is married to Virginia and the couple has three children and grandchildren.
“Now that is an experience!” he quipped.
