Professor Bongani Mayosi: "A giant has truly fallen"

Professor Bongani Mayosi. Photo: UCT

“His commitment to the public healthcare sector was exemplary and manifested in his research. He passionately pursued rheumatic heart disease, the leading cause of valvular heart disease in the developing world, and tuberculous pericardial disease, so very prevalent in Africa. His death is a great loss not only to his family, friends and colleagues, but the entire medical fraternity and our country.

"Bongani was a friend, mentor, research collaborator and inspiration to very many. His kind spirt, scholarliness and humility shone through his very being. He had gravitas and an indomitable presence. A giant has truly fallen, way too soon, and his passing leaves a gaping void in medicine in South Africa,” says Dr Mzukisi Grootboom, chairperson of South African Medical Association.

Bongani Mawethu Mayosi, 51, was born in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. He completed his medical training at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and his postgraduate work at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital. He would later do his PhD at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where he did ground-breaking work on the genetics of cardiomyopathies seen in South Africans.

For his work, Mayosi was awarded the country's highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe (Silver) in 2009. He became the first black head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town in 2006, and later promoted to the dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCT in 2016. He was a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and a former President of the College of Physicians of South Africa.

"He will be remembered for his scientific rigour and his dedication to improving public health. Last year a research team led by him made international headlines for identifying a new gene that is a major cause of sudden death by heart failure among young people and athletes. Professor Mayosi’s involvement in this research included spending 20 years monitoring a South African family that was affected by this disorder. This is a testimony to his tenacious pursuit of pioneering research that can help save lives," says Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, UCT vice-chancellor.

President Cyril Ramaphosa also paid tribute to Mayosi, saying: “His death is indeed an enormous loss not only to his family but to the country as a whole. On behalf of government and South Africans as a whole, we convey our most heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and relatives, and the health science fraternity."

Mayosi is survived by his wife, Professor Nonhlanhla Khumalo, their two daughters, S’vuyile and Camagu.