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Patson Dzamara’s own experience intersected with Zimbabwe’s ongoing healthcare crisis. Public healthcare effectively collapsed and private treatment is unaffordable for the majority of Zimbabweans.Before his demise, a crowdfunder raised more than $14 000 in the days after Patson’s diagnosis was announced but he died before enough was raised to cover the huge projected treatment bill of $28 000.
An activist film producer who travelled to the United States with Patson in 2016, Rufaro Kaseke is on record of standing by her late comrade.
“Everything is broken down, and these are the results.We are struggling in healthcare, with mismanagement of healthcare funds, and Patson died right at the peak of that,” said Kaseke.
“This struggle has eaten him, literally.”
Kaseke confirmed how the deteriorating dilapidated health infrastructure in Zimbabwe killed Patson Dzamara.
One of five children, of which Itai was the eldest, Patson grew up between Harare’s high-density suburbs and their rural home of Mutoko in Mashonaland East.
He wrote several books about leadership and was a motivational speaker and a committed Christian.
“He was a very loving and passionate person,” said Rutendo Mudzamiri, who is also a leadership coach. “He was extremely resourceful, funny, adventurous, loved music and simply loved all people.”
Patson stepped in as a caregiver and guardian for Itai’s two young children.
“Him being in their lives as their uncle did a lot emotionally as well as materially,” said Dirk Frey who had protested alongside Itayi.
“He was a smart person intellectually but he was also a quality guy. He was very modern,” recalled Kaseke. “I remember walking around Bryant Park [in New York] with him, as he marvelled at the architecture. He’d say, ‘What is stopping us from having an intersection like this?’ Patson had an idea, a vision for a modern Zimbabwe.”
Many hoped that the ousting of Mugabe in November 2017 by his deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, would herald positive progress for the country.
Patson seized upon the moment to again press for answers about his brother and call for an independent inquiry into his abduction. But Patson also warned in an opinion piece that although the country had a different administration, “it is not new leadership”.
Nearly three years on, little of that hope remains as Zimbabweans battle serious crises on multiple fronts including a failed health infrastructure which contributed to Patson’s demise.
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