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Elliot Ziwira Senior Writer
Passionate about life and the resilience of the human spirit, even in the face of adversity, former Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust and Zimpapers chairman, Dr Davison Mashizha Sadza who died on June 9, 2020 was more than a medical doctor.

He was an epitome of freedom, all forms of freedom.

Born in Sadza Village, Chivhu in 1929, Dr Sadza was a colossus, as he could adeptly juggle between two sworn foes during the liberation struggle: the freedom fighters and the Rhodesian soldiers, in his quest to save life.

After all, medical ethics that he fervently observed pivot on the sanctity of life.

Where then could be freedom if a man is not allowed to adhere to the tenets that save life? And what is freedom if it gags voices through thwarting of expression? Could there be freedom in the absence of patriotism: in regurgitating racism, tribalism and political rhetoric?

To Dr Sadza freedom meant nothing if it could not translate to a racism-free, ethnically harmonious, and culturally astute society, where information is used constructively in bridging differences.

Trained as a teacher and medical doctor, Dr Sadza saw himself interacting with people from different backgrounds: cutting through ethical and colour bars.

Resplendent in his experiences as head at Nyadire Teachers’ College, and later Nyadire Mission Hospital as a medical superintendent, and subsequently Murehwa where he assumed the role of district medical officer, is a man who knew what he wanted in life: to save it and live it to the fullest.

But did colonial Rhodesia allow such freedom?

Father Fidelis Mukonori, who was a member of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia, recalls how the affable, humble and ethical doctor visited him at Silveira House, Chishawasha in 1976 to express the quandary he was in as a medical doctor of colour discharging his duties in a war zone at the height of the liberation struggle.

“He called me around 1976, and indicated that he wanted to see me. I knew him as a medical doctor, but I had not met him. He was stressed.

“He was working at Nyadire Mission, which naturally put him in a precarious position. He revealed that during the day he had to treat Rhodesian soldiers, and at night he treated wounded freedom fighters, and other victims of war who could not possibly visit the hospital in broad daylight”, Fr Mukonori intimated.

Such was his passion for freedom, respect for the sacredness of life regardless of race, creed and ethnicity that he took the cleric’s advice, notwithstanding the danger posed, to engage the commanders of the two camps in the trenches, and apprise them of his role as a medical doctor. He had to engross in dialogue with the guerrilla commander first, and later the Rhodesian commander emphasising to them what life meant to him.

He had to treat everyone who came to him for treatment.

Matters got to a head when he was appointed the medical officer of the Rhodesian army base at Murehwa Centre.

Forever subjected to threats, especially when his Murehwa surgery became a popular supply for freedom fighters’ needs, Dr Sadza endured it all in his mission to save life, and quest for freedom.

As Fr Mukonori recollects, the danger was real for medical doctors who fraternised with freedom fighters. Dr Luisa Guiddoti, a personal friend of his, who was based at All Souls Mission in Mutoko, was savaged to death by Rhodesian forces in June 1979 on her way from Dr Sadza’s station where she had gone to collect baby powdered milk for her wards.

Aware of the Rhodesian media’s role in distorting African politics, culture and history in its disregard of the unity embodied in nationalist movements and their liberation armies, equating all to communism, which he experienced first-hand, Dr Sadza immediately took the task to demystify such colonial mistruths when he was appointed the first chairman of the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (ZMMT) in 1981, and Zimbabwe Newspapers chairman.

The ZMMT was viewed as a middle of the road way of managing the media for the benefit of all citizens regardless of race, religion and shade of opinion.

The Government’s idea was to establish a chain of newspapers that would be a mouthpiece of the Zimbabwean people as a whole, and not a minority based in Johannesburg. To that end, the trust, an autonomous and independent body of distinguished Zimbabweans, like Dr Sadza, was established in January 1981.

The trust was to strike a compromise between having a wholly private media controlled by South African interests (40 percent by the Argus Group and 3,42 percent by South African residents), and a solely Government controlled media.

Through the trust, Government acquired control of Zimbabwe’s major newspapers group: Zimpapers, which then published The Herald, The Sunday Mail, Chronicle, Sunday News and The Manica Post.

It was, therefore, befitting that Dr Sadza be the trust’s inaugural chairman.

Journalism, indeed, the media landscape in Zimbabwe owes the freedom exponent a lot, as he oversaw the establishment of a new and free Press through navigation of the conflicting and often tumultuous twisting of ideas and requisites of owners, journalists and readers.

He had to cautiously play a buffer role to bring the stakeholders at variance to a confluence.

However, Dr Sadza’s view of Press freedom was not criticism for disparagement’s sake.

In an interview with The Herald, announcing his retirement as chairman of ZMMT and Zimpapers in July 1994, after 13 years at the helm, Dr Sadza said:

“In my opinion, I believe we have freedom of the Press in Zimbabwe, which we have been guarding very carefully and very jealously.

“In my mind there is no such thing as total freedom of the press. It is a freedom, which is basically exercised within prescribed boundaries. Some of the freedom is self-imposed and self-regulatory as seen in mature journalists.”

Mature journalists, he believed, are able to regulate themselves aware that they are citizens of a particular country.

“I believe that a mature, responsible journalist does not need to be reminded that he, as a citizen of Zimbabwe, owes his primary allegiance to Zimbabwe and would exercise his journalism with that in mind,” he pointed out, adding: “That happens whether you are in Britain, America or Pakistan . . . you do not need to be schooled in that kind of thing”.

There are always such regulated areas where journalists should be wary of giving information on  in the interest of the country.

Sadza retired from public service to concentrate on his private surgeries before re-joining the public sector as medical superintendent for Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.

He also served as Premier Service Medical Aid Society managing director.

His colleagues elected him as president of the Zimbabwe Medical Doctors Association.

As Fr Mukonori’s reminisces, Dr Sadza was passionate about everything he did. Whatever he faced, he had to do it from the heart.

He was smart intellectually, he was smart in his approach to issues, and above all he valued life: Life was precious to him.

He loved his country, Zimbabwe was his home, and he hoped everyone knew how precious Zimbabwe was.

“He sacrificed for his country even though as a medical doctor he could simply leave and go somewhere else, but he stayed put. He wished Zimbabwe would do better in development, in health, and in the media. He knew Zimbabweans were educated, and could do better in the development of their county. If Zimbabwe had as many Dr Sadzas across all areas, then all could be well, because he was an exemplary man,” reflected the cleric.

Go well unwavering epitome of freedom.