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CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 29, No 4, July/August 2018
AFRICA
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that there is little point in having lonely islands of success.
And importantly, he would argue, Africa’s long-term ability
to address the great health-related and other challenges of the
day was crucially dependent on making sure we have as many
high achievers and people with the requisite skills and ability as
possible.
In his role as a global leader in medicine, he managed to
strike up and lead critical collaborations with international
partners, which allowed him a large number of important
scholarly contributions on cardiovascular disease and health
at local and international levels. Working with Salim Yusuf of
the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) at McMaster
University in Canada, research funding was raised and expertise
was developed that allowed for the creation of the Pan-African
Investigation of the Management of Pericarditis (IMPI), a multi-
centre research consortium that conducted many important
studies and a trial on tuberculous pericarditis.
Again it was his relationship with partners at the PHRI that
led to the establishment of the Global Rheumatic Heart Disease
Registry, or REMEDY, which evolved into the first large, multi-
country registry and cohort study of 3 000 people with rheumatic
heart disease (RHD) across much of the African continent, the
Middle East and east Asia. The INVICTUS trial of 4 500 people
evaluated antithrombotics in a global registry and cohort study
of 20 000 patients in 30 countries, and a Wellcome Trust-funded
study worked on the genetics of RHD.
Finally, working with Peter Schwartz, Hugh Watkins and
other collaborators from Europe and the United Kingdom,
a programme of research on heart muscle disease and novel
genes in Africans was established. Through these pioneering
programmes, optimal methods for the diagnosis and treatment
of tuberculous pericarditis were defined, rheumatic heart disease
was put on the global agenda of the World Heart Federation and
World Health Organisation, and it led to the discovery of novel
genes, which allowed for better understanding of the biological
mechanisms of heart disease and fibrosis.
Mayosi’s research output was enormous and included many
articles, book chapters and books with multiple citations. His
contributions to capacity development and skills output were
equally impressive and included numerous individuals who he
personally supervised and mentored as academics, clinician
scientists and leaders, and even more people whom he inspired,
influenced and created opportunities to do the same.
Among his many achievements, he was particularly proud,
over the 20 years of service to the organisation, of helping to
resurrect the Pan-African Society of Cardiology into a vibrant,
active society, and helping to give the organisation a sense
of gravitas and purpose, making it fit and able to help tackle
Africa’s cardiovascular health priorities.
For his tremendous contribution to society, Mayosi was
honoured with numerous awards and prizes during his
outstanding career. Among those that he prized most were South
Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe in Silver, for
excellent contributions to medical science in 2009, the National
Science and Technology Foundation – BHP Billiton award
2012 (to an individual for outstanding contribution to science,
engineering, technology and innovation through management
and related activities over the previous five to 10 years or less),
and the National Research Foundation award for transforming
the science cohort of South Africa (the award is focused on
transforming the science cohort to be more representative of
South African demographics).
Importantly, this recognition came as he actively advanced
and supported the careers of students and colleagues, irrespective
of ethnicity, race, religion or social class. His unique ability to be
both ‘colour blind’ and proudly promote transformation and
the all-inclusive African-ness was enormously important to a
wounded country and it’s institutions of higher learning.
In 2016 Mayosi received the Honorary Fellowship of Wolfson
College, University of Oxford (to individuals whom they
particularly value and admire for their outstanding distinction in
their field, and for the intellectual contribution they have made in
the world to areas in which the College has a strong interest). In
2017 he became one of the few Africans inducted to the National
Academy of Medicine in the USA.
Bongani remained grounded and humble until the very
end. It is fair to say he was respected and revered, and will be
remembered as much for who he was as a human being and his
qualities of ‘ubuntu’ (humanity towards others) as for what he
achieved. He was a peoples’ person who could fit in comfortably
almost anywhere with anyone. He developed warm, strong bonds
and interpersonal relationships with people at all levels. He was
kind and compassionate and cared deeply about the welfare and
well-being of others. When asked how it was that he was able
to give so much to others, he famously responded by reminding
people that ‘the gift of the giving is in the giving’.
He was a devoted, loving family man who met his wife and
life partner Professor Nonhlanhla Khumalo on a bus during
orientation at medical school when he was 16 years old, and
knew immediately that he had found his life partner. Their
lifelong bond was palpable and obvious to all who met them.
Adorning the walls of his office at work were numerous short,
handwritten messages from his three daughters Nosipho, Vuyi
and Gugu, who he loved much and were not only incredibly
special to him but were his pride and joy.
Bongani was appointed as dean of the Faculty of Medicine
at the University of Cape Town in 2016. This appointment
coincided with the start of country- and university-wide,
student-led unrest and protests, and one of the most difficult
periods ever experienced in the higher education landscape. By
his own admission, being at the symbolic centre of the tense
turmoil that ensued and the target of often intense criticism
from all stakeholders was incredibly difficult, given his own value
system, beliefs and way of being. Importantly it also took him
away from his first love of teaching, training and research, and
the grand plans for the Faculty of Health Sciences, country and
continent, which he had been developing over the preceding 12
to 15 months, in preparation for becoming dean. No one will
ever know or understand how much the events of 2016–2018
contributed to his painful battle with clinical depression, which
he eventually succumbed to through suicide on 27 July of
this year, but there is little doubt that the turbulent times and
environment clearly had a significant impact on him.
Bongani will be sorely missed by all who knew him and
knew of him. Among the many legacies he leaves behind are
the numerous people, programmes and partnerships, which he
inspired and infused with a collective sense of purpose to work
towards his dreams of a healthier, wealthier and wiser Africa,
capable of defining its own priorities, solving its own problems
and being the master of its own destiny.