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Primrose Nyanzero Herald Reporter
Health Services Board (HSB) deputy chairperson and former Health and Child Care permanent secretary Dr Elizabeth Xaba, who died on November 3, has been declared a provincial liberation heroine. She was 65. In a statement, Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Cde Ignatius Chombo said President Mugabe, who is also the party’s First Secretary, had conferred a provincial liberation heroine status to the late Dr Xaba.

She will be buried at Gweru Liberation Heroes’ Acre cemetery on Friday, November 10. A church service will be held today at Nyaradzo Herbert Chitepo office in Harare at 10am and another one at her home at No. 14248 Heyman Drive, Gunhill, where mourners are gathered.

The funeral will proceed to Kadoma at 2pm, where her body will lie in state at her family home. On Thursday, the body will be taken to Gweru, where it will also lie in state followed by burial on Friday. The late Dr Xaba died at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, where she succumbed to breast cancer. She is survived by one daughter.

She served as medical practitioner in the country’s hospitals and was Gweru’s city director of health services before being appointed Secretary for the Health and Child Care Ministry. She served as a commissioner in the Public Service Commission and lately as the vice chairperson of the HSB. Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda said the civil service had been robbed of a hardworking professional.

“As the civil service and indeed Government as a whole, we are deeply saddened by the cruel blow of fate ,which has robbed the nation of a hardworking professional, who helped the country with distinction in various capacities in the health sector,” he said.

Dr Sibanda said the demise of Dr Xaba had left a gap in the civil service and the health sector and the late Dr Xaba shall forever be remembered.

“Dr Xaba shall continue to be fondly remembered by her colleagues in Government, all of whom held her in high esteem. Our prayers are with the Xaba family. May the good Lord grant them the fortitude to cope with this sad occurrence,” he said.