Cape Town’s director of health, former anti-conscription campaigner Ivan Toms, was found dead in his home on Tuesday morning, police said.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Billy Jones said foul play was not suspected at this stage.
He said police used a key from a neighbour to gain access to Toms’ Mowbray home at about 9.30am after colleagues became concerned that he had not turned up for work.
Toms’ body was lying on his bed.
”There were no signs of forced entry, and there was no sign of a possible robbery. The deceased had no external wounds to the body,” Jones said.
”But of course the normal post mortem [examination] will be conducted.”
Toms, who was born in 1953, completed a medical degree at the University of Cape Town before being conscripted in 1978 for national service in the South African Defence Force (SADF), which he performed as a non-combatant doctor.
On his return to Cape Town he played a leading role in setting up a vital clinic in the burgeoning squatter settlement of Crossroads, 15km outside the city.
There he was the only doctor caring for about 60 000 people.
The brutalities committed by members of the security forces in trying to clear the area of shacks made Toms decide that he would never again serve in the army, in which he then held the rank of lieutenant.
He became a founder member of the End Conscription Campaign, and in 1985 fasted for three weeks in Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral in support of the campaign’s call for troops not to be deployed in townships.
”As a Christian I am obliged to say no, to say never again will I put on that SADF uniform,” he said.
As a result, he, like other members of the campaign were subjected to systematic intimidation and harassment by a defence force dirty-tricks brigade, including posters that drew attention to Toms’ homosexuality.
In 1987 he defied a call-up for a one month SADF camp, symbolically handing in his uniform at the reporting depot.
For this he was sentenced to 21 months’ jail in Pollsmoor, of which he served nine months.
In 1991, Toms became national coordinator of the National Progressive Primary Healthcare Network, responsible for developing a national HIV/Aids programme.
In 1996, he moved into local government, and in 2002 was appointed Cape Town’s director of health, where he led the battle against tuberculosis and HIV/Aids, which included pioneering the use of antiretrovirals.
Toms was also an outspoken advocate of gay rights.
Two years ago President Thabo Mbeki awarded him the Order of the Baobab, in recognition of what the citation said was his ”outstanding contribution to the struggle against apartheid and sexual discrimination”.
A friend, a Democratic Alliance member of the Western Cape provincial legislature Robin Carlisle, described his death as a ”tragic and terrible loss for Cape Town”.
”Small in stature, gentle and witty, he was the bravest of the brave,” Carlisle said.
”He was too young to die.”
African National Congress Western Cape secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha said: ”He was a fighter against apartheid and for human and democratic
rights.”
”The passing of Ivan Toms is a great loss to the people of the city, the province and the country.”
Mayor Helen Zille said she and her colleagues would sorely miss Toms.
”Our organisation has lost one of its most talented leaders,” she said. – Sapa