Professor Bongani Mayosi 'was a genius, an A-rated scientist'

Professor Bongani Mayosi “was a genius, an A-rated scientist, and he was tapped into the corridors of power”.

Talking to Times Select yesterday after Mayosi's funeral on Saturday, SA Medical Research Council (MRC) president Professor Glenda Gray added that the last time she met him he had seemed sad, as if “the hope had gone”.

All agreed that the effusive energy that characterised Mayosi, the man with a big smile and a giant intellect, was destroyed after he became dean of the University of Cape Town’s health faculty in 2016 and saw his vision of transformation and unity mangled by competing forces in higher education.

The stresses that broke the spirit of Mayosi, who took his life 10 days ago, are still being contested by these forces even as the nation mourns his death.

Academics who were traumatised by the Fees Must Fall uprising, and are still struggling with the health consequences, said the hostility he endured fuelled his depression.

Read the full story on Times Select