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George Maponga in Masvingo

The state-of-art Simon Mazorodze School of Medicine and Health Sciences at Great Zimbabwe University is nearing completion .

Named after late national hero and one of Masvingo’s first black medical doctors the GZU Medical School is expected to open its doors in August this year. This milestone will make GZU the fourth State-owned university after UZ, NUST and Midlands State University to offer training in medicine and health sciences.

Government through education 5.0 continues to pivot universities to be hot spots for solutions to problems stymieing socio-economic growth as the country gears to attain middle income society status by 2030.

University spokesperson Mr Anderson Chipatiso yesterday said most of the works at the school buildings had been completed and said the school can open its doors by August

“Most of the exterior works at the Simon Mazorodze School of Medicine and Health Sciences have been completed with the only outstanding task being equipping of the new facility but hopefully by August we will be opening our doors to the first group of our medical students,” said Mr Chipatiso.

“We have already received part of our equipment for the medical school that we sourced from the US and we are now waiting for the remaining batch of equipment that is coming from China. We should take delivery end of next month.”

The Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe, which makes sure there is conformity to standards, has already had an inaugural visit to the medical school to have an on-site assessment of progress.

According to Mr Chipatiso, the council met senior university authorities led by Vice Chancellor Professor Rungano Zvobgo and also held discussions with other senior figures from the university spearheading development of the new medical school.

The council is expected to make another visit before the school opens to make sure all conditions are met.

The Simon Mazorodze School of Medicine and Health Sciences will closely work with Masvingo Provincial Hospital in the city and another of GZU’s flagship projects, the Mashava Teaching Hospital.

GZU opened Mashava Teaching Hospital after acquiring most of the properties in Mashava, a once thriving asbestos mining town that had largely become a ghost urban settlement. According to the GZU blueprint for its soon to be opened medical school, the curriculum will expand to traditional medicine instead of exclusively zeroing in on conventional medicine.