Dear Staff and Students
I wish to thank you all sincerely for the dignified and respectful manner of commemorating our beloved Professor Mayosi over the last two days. We are united in our grief and in the desire to celebrate his life. The need for unity was emphasised by Professor Mayosi in his inaugural lecture when he quoted Nelson Mandela: “The need to unite the people of our country is as important now a task as it always has been. No individual leader is able to take on the enormous task on his own.”
This communication serves to inform you of the memorial events that will take place over the next few days.
Special Memorial Service and Funeral
Thursday, 2 August 2018 at 16:00, the Mayosi Family and the University of Cape Town will be hosting a Special Memorial Service to be held on Upper Campus in the Memorial Hall. The Service will also be live-streamed via the University website. Jammie Shuttles will leave from the Faculty of Health Sciences at 15:00 and return at 19:00.
Saturday, 4 August 2018 at 08:30, Professor Mayosi’s funeral service will be held in the Memorial Hall on Upper Campus.
Celebrating Professor Mayosi’s life
Our duty is to continue to celebrate the life of Professor Mayosi in a dignified and respectful manner.
The sudden and tragic loss of Professor Mayosi is traumatic for all of us. Our participation in the commemorative services over this period will assist us in the grieving process. Colleagues and students remember Professor Mayosi for his “humility, integrity, brilliance, generosity of spirit, approachable demeanour and his dedication to his work and the improvement of the quality of lives of others.”
We wish to also acknowledge the courage of the Mayosi family in disclosing the circumstances of his passing away, and Professor Mayosi’s struggle with depression. Professor Mayosi was deeply committed to equity and justice in improving the health of the people in our country. It is therefore fitting that we contribute to increasing awareness of depression and other mental health illnesses in our communities and promoting destigmatisation of these conditions.
We are still working towards wholeness in our many fractured environment and systems – in our Faculty, our University and our country. We value every member of our Faculty community – just as Professor Mayosi did. Let us commit now to create safe and inclusive spaces for deep reflection. I encourage personal and group reflection and let us approach this with honesty, integrity and kindness.
Acting Dean
Reno Morar
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1967–2018
The University of Cape Town mourns the passing of Professor Bongani Mayosi, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, who left us on the morning of Friday, 27 July. While this is a very difficult time for both students and staff, particularly those in the Faculty of Health Sciences, it is also a time to reflect on and celebrate the incredible life of one of the university’s finest academics and researchers.
Read #RememberingMayosi messages that have been received from the community so far.
Read letters of condolence.