STAFFING Farewell to Comrade Professor David Sanders: SOPH founding director

FAREWELL TO COMRADE PROFESSOR DAVID SANDERS: SOPH FOUNDING DIRECTOR1

On 30 August 2019, the SOPH’s founding Director, Emeritus Professor David Sanders passed away unexpectedly while on holiday in the UK with his wife, Sue Fawcus. His passing came as an enormous shock to his colleagues in the School and across the world. Despite having formally retired in 2010, he had continued to be deeply involved in a wide range of research and advocacy activities, both at the SOPH and the People’s Health Movement. David grew up and trained as a medical doctor in Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia), but left for the UK where he obtained specialisations in paediatrics, tropical and community health and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians. From early on in his career he combined his professional work with political activism, working with Southern African liberation movements, the medical campaign against private practice in the UK and for the preservation of the National Health Service (NHS); and he was a persistent advocate for primary health care. In 1980 David and Sue returned to Zimbabwe where he assisted in building up district health services on the primary health care model with a strong emphasis on community organisational structures that had been developed during the Zimbabwe liberation struggle. He also ran a rural child feeding programme based on local foods. He then transitioned to the University of Zimbabwe’s Department of Paediatrics and then to Community Health where he organised a rural-based teaching programme for undergraduates. These rural primary health care initiatives inspired many health care workers (HCWs) to continue this kind of work in many countries around the world. His own children, Ben, Lisa and Oscar, were born during this time and were a treasured addition to his life. He also further developed his love of fly fishing which was a big feature of holidays with his extended family who were such an important part of his life in Zimbabwe. In 1993 David was recruited by the late Prof Jakes Gerwel, then Rector of the University of the Western Cape, to spearhead the establishment of a Public Health Programme at the University, to assist in building a new health system in South Africa – a task he pursued with characteristic energy and determination. David attracted a formidable team of like-minded academics to this initially tiny undertaking from which he established the largest continuing education public health programme in Africa. This included starting the first Master of Public Health (MPH) programme open to health practitioners who were not medical doctors – many of whom were from beyond the country’s borders. Having developed the Programme into a School in 1993, David initiated a wide range of research, advocacy and policy support initiatives.

Throughout his academic career David married academic work with health activism, campaigning for a sugar tax; for a stronger focus on comprehensive primary health care; and against the international monopoly of food companies which promote the obesity epidemic etc. His insistence on the link between political change and health as embodied in the Alma Ata Declaration, and of the fundamental importance of addressing the social determinants of health, came together in the Peoples’ Health Movement of which he was a founder and to which he remained fervently committed. These are also embodied in his seminal publications The Struggle for Health and Questioning the Solution. The process of revising The Struggle for Health for a second edition, in which he was engaged when he passed away, is being completed by his wife and several colleagues; we hope to launch this in 2022. The tributes, messages and condolences that flooded in from hundreds of people after David’s death all expressed a profound sense of loss, as well of deep gratitude for his work and contribution: for the tenaciously urgent voice of the health activist and commentator fighting for health as a human right, fighting against persistent inequity and injustices; for the leader who helped build the post-independence health system in Zimbabwe and later in South Africa; for establishing and building the School of Public Health at UWC, and the People’s Health Movement both globally and in South Africa. And for being one of the public health community’s voices of conscience – who could be relied upon to ask inconvenient questions at a world health assembly, a TV debate or a local workshop, expressing in an enviably articulate and sharp manner what many of us could not find the words to say. These tributes can be found on the websites of the School of Public Health and the People’s Health Movement. On 19 September 2019 we remembered David and celebrated his life at a memorial in the SOPH attended by more than 400 people. The SOPH building, funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies, is a visible manifestation of the respect and acknowledgment of David’s work – and the School will be associated with David Sanders’ name for a very long time to come. While it is not his only legacy, it is an important one, and his unwavering focus on health equity and of social justice continues to shape and direct our work.

1. A big thank you to David’s son Oscar. Much of the account of David’s life before he joined UWC comes from Oscar’s eulogy to his father at his memorial.