23 Facts About Timothy Stamps

Timothy John Stamps was a Welsh and Zimbabwean politician and medical doctor who served in the Government of Zimbabwe as Minister of Health from 1986 to 2002.

Timothy Stamps 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.

Timothy Stamps spent the remainder of his life in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.

Timothy Stamps was promoted to Chief Medical Officer in 1970.

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

Timothy Stamps became chairman of the 'Freedom from Hunger' campaign in Rhodesia.

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

One thing Timothy 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.

Timothy Stamps took an interest in wider social and economic problems facing Zimbabwe.

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

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

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

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

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

Timothy Stamps was critical of police conduct in attempting to maintain public order, notably when measures to quell disorder at an international football match in 2000 ended up leaving eleven people dead.

Timothy Stamps drew attention to "Project Coast", the name given to chemical and biological warfare programmes run by South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.

Timothy Stamps actively campaigned for ZANU-PF in the 2000 election and was returned to the House of Assembly as a non-constituency MP.

Timothy Stamps carried on as Health Minister until March 2002, but was becoming increasingly exhausted, and in late 2001 he suffered a stroke.

Timothy Stamps was replaced as Health Minister by his deputy, David Parirenyatwa, in August 2002; due to Stamps' illness, Parirenyatwa had already been effectively running the ministry.

Timothy Stamps was banned from the EU and access to assets he owned in the EU was frozen.

Many observers found the EU's treatment of Dr Timothy Stamps to be curious, given that by July 2002 he was retired from politics and a semi-invalid.

In February 2008, as Health Adviser in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Timothy Stamps attended President Mugabe's eighty-fourth birthday celebrations with several other high-profile ZANU-PF party members.

Dr Timothy Stamps died on 26 November 2017 after succumbing to a lung infection on Sunday at the Borrowdale Trauma Centre in Harare.