Timothy John Stamps (15 October 1936 – 26 November 2017) was a Welsh and Zimbabwean politician and medical doctor who served in the Government of Zimbabwe as Minister of Health from 1986 to 2002.
[1] At that time, whites comprised no more than 15% of the population of Salisbury but at least 60% of municipal spending on social services in the city was directed towards them.
At the time of Zimbabwe's independence, an insurance funded healthcare system provided a first world provision for most whites.
In the early-1980s, Stamps was active in raising finance from overseas sources (government, NGO and international organisations) to fund the construction of clinics and community hospitals in rural areas.
The Zimbabwean government also sought to expand healthcare facilities and Stamps worked closely with the Ministry of Health on a number of projects.
Being one of only a small number of party members with healthcare management experience, Stamps' advice and services were eagerly sought.
He became a ZANU-PF Member of Parliament at the 1985 general election and in 1986 was appointed as Minister of Health and Child Welfare – a position he held until 2002.
AIDS activity by government is not seen as politically beneficial, since it may offend conservative religious and traditional groups and somehow attracts a stigma.
"[2]Stamps was also 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.
He also drew attention to "Project Coast", the name given to chemical and biological warfare programmes run by South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.
[3] Project Coast included attempts to develop genetically engineered diseases and toxins that would affect blacks more than whites.
Presenting an alternative description of events, Colonel Lionel Dyke, a Mugabe ally who participated in the Gukurahundi, stated that anthrax and cholera spores (supplied by the South African Defence Force) were spread in the TTLs during the closing stages of the civil war, but claimed that this was the result of South African intelligence services treating the country as a "laboratory", and that Rhodesia had no capacity to produce anthrax or cholera.
[6] Stamps found himself struggling to prevent the collapse of the system he had built up, and was reported to have lost his temper with media and union representatives on several occasions.
As a footnote to his political career, in July 2002 Stamps was one of 92 Zimbabweans subject to EU "smart sanctions" intended to express disapproval of various Zimbabwe government policies.
[citation needed] Dr. Timothy Stamps died on 26 November 2017 after succumbing to a lung infection on Sunday at the Borrowdale Trauma Centre in Harare.
In 2017, Zimbabwe's second President Emmerson Mnangagwa gave a speech encouraging all Zimbabweans to follow the example of cooperation and patriotism set by Timothy Stamps.