Professor Philda Nzimande

Professor Philda Nomusa Nzimande has been honoured by a United Kingdom-based nursing federation for her contribution to the nursing profession in South Africa, with the prestigious Dame Nita Barrow Memorial Lecture award. She is the fourth recipient of the award.

The award, named after Dame Nita Barrow, who was also a nurse, honours women outside of the UK who have been in the forefront of the profession. Professor Nzimande – a registered nurse, midwife, educator, administrator, researcher, academic and businesswoman - started off with a dream to become a doctor, but she didn’t have a matric (grade 12).

After completing her high school study, she pursued a career in nursing and over the years, has worked in various South African hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal where she built up a reputation for herself as a kind and compassionate nurse who went the extra mile to care for patients. She now holds five degrees and a professorship.

Nzimande established three nursing organisations and she was also part of a group who engaged in discussions that led to the formation of South Africa’s leading nursing organisation, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), of which she became the first president.

Nzimande’s other achievements include establishing a nursing college in 1976 and became the first black South African nurse to be awarded a master’s degree in nursing science by a South African university.

In 2001 she was elected to the board of the Commonwealth Nurses Federation, representing 14 countries in east, central and southern Africa and is one of the three presidents of the International Council of Nurses. She also oversees the Open Learning Academy of Nursing Institute at the University of Zululand.