Timothy Stamps

Timothy John Stamps (15 October 1936 – 26 November 2017) was a Welsh and Zimbabwean politician and medical doctor who served in the Government of Zimbabwe as Minister of Health from 1986 to 2002.

For most of that period, he was the only white member of the government.

Stamps was born in Wales in 1936.

After completing medical training at Cardiff Medical School, he initiated training in Paediatrics before becoming a GP in Newport, South Wales.

He gained experience in Public Health in South Wales before moving, with his then wife and children, to Rhodesia in 1968 as Medical Officer of Health for Salisbury.

He spent the remainder of his life in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.

He was promoted to Chief Medical Officer in 1970.

He was dismissed from this last post in 1974, allegedly for trying to switch the emphasis in healthcare provision slightly more towards the black community.

At that time, whites comprised no more than 15% of the population of Salisbury but at least 60% of municipal spending on social services in the city was directed towards them.

After his dismissal, Stamps worked as a private GP and got involved in a number of community projects.

In 1974 he gained a law degree at night school and became increasingly interested in politics.

He became chairman of the 'Freedom from Hunger' campaign (a UN-sponsored organisation) in Rhodesia.

In May 1976, he was elected to Salisbury City Council.

At the time of Zimbabwe's independence, an insurance funded healthcare system provided a first world provision for most whites.

By contrast, most blacks enjoyed only the most basic of medical services.

The only access to healthcare for blacks in rural areas was through mission station clinics or clinics provided by white farmers for workers and their families.

In the early-1980s, Stamps was active in raising finance from overseas sources (government, NGO and international organisations) to fund the construction of clinics and community hospitals in rural areas.

The Zimbabwean government also sought to expand healthcare facilities and Stamps worked closely with the Ministry of Health on a number of projects.

One thing Stamps found with these early projects was this it was less difficult to raise funds to cover the capital construction cost of a project than it was to cover its continuing revenue costs.

He also took an interest in wider social and economic problems facing Zimbabwe.

The land tenure system which had been installed during the existence of Rhodesia had resulted in a situation in which most of the farming land in the country was either: (a) individually titled and white owned, or (b) collectively owned for use by African tribes.

Both of these forms of tenure presented problems that needed to be urgently addressed.

Although most Zimbabweans agreed on the need for reform in general terms, conservative elements (including both white farmers and African tribal chiefs) would put up stubborn resistance to specific proposals for reform.

Stamps sought to develop a new model for land ownership and usage.

At the 1980 election, Stamps fought the white roll Kopje constituency as an Independent candidate against the Rhodesian Front.

Although he polled only about one-third of the vote in a straight fight, this was the highest vote for any non-Rhodesian Front candidate.

Along with a number of the white elite in the post-independence period, Stamps subsequently joined ZANU-PF.

Being one of only a small number of party members with healthcare management experience, Stamps' advice and services were eagerly sought.

He oversaw a substantial expansion of the Zimbabwean healthcare and public health systems in the late-1980s and early-1990s.

This expansion attracted a great deal of favourable attention both at home and abroad.

The Zimbabwe experience was often held up as an example for other developing countries.

Stamps took a lot of the credit for this and was frequently asked to address international conferences.

His credibility in Zimbabwe was such that he could speak out on various matters that other politicians would exercise caution over.

For example, his predecessor as Health Minister had dismissed the AIDS epidemic as a fiction invented by the media to cause panic.

In 1982, he acquired a formerly white-owned dairy farm near Harare for development as a co-operative.

Funded by a $2,000,000 grant from the German charity AgroAction, he was able to settle 2,000 people at this farm.

Stamps claimed that Vuti farm became self-funding after eight years.

He became a ZANU-PF Member of Parliament at the 1985 general election and in 1986 was appointed as Minister of Health and Child Welfare – a position he held until 2002.

In an interview in 1996, Stamps commented that:

During his early years as a Minister, he promoted the development of community healthcare using the slogan "Health for All by the Year 2000".