Source: Associated Press via Seattle PI, Independent Online, Mail & Guardian

Cape Town, South Africa -- Ivan Toms, a South African anti-apartheid and gay rights activist who played a key role in the campaign to end conscription of young white men to bolster the racist apartheid security forces has died. He was 55.

 

He was found dead in his Mowbray home on Tuesday, police said. He died of meningitis, Cape Town city manager Achmat Ebrahim said on Wednesday.

A "devastated" Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on Tuesday said he wanted to pay the "highest possible tribute" to Toms, founder member of the End Conscription Campaign.

"I thank God that I knew him. Knowing him makes (one) feel proud. This is a prime example of someone who had ubuntu. He was utterly selfless."

The Nobel laureate was one of scores of politicians, theologians, medical professionals and former activists who paid moving tributes to the "stalwart of the struggle" and "fearless fighter for gay rights".

"He was a fighter against apartheid and for human and democratic rights," Mcebisi Skwatsha, secretary of the African National Congress in the Western Cape, was quoted by the South African Press Association as saying. "The passing of Ivan Toms is a great loss to the people of the city and the country."

Toms, a medical doctor, was director of health for Cape Town.

"He made a big difference to health in Cape Town," said Dr Peter Barron, co-editor of the District Health Barometer, which measures and monitors the country's health systems.

ID deputy president Simon Grindrod said the city should consider a permanent memorial for Toms "for the contribution he made to all our communities".

Health MEC Pierre Uys hailed Toms as a "champion" for his contribution to health care in the province and country, while the provincial health department said he would be remembered for his "total devotion to his work, his commitment to improving the health of all communities and his infectious sense of humour".

Toms, who opposed the actions of the apartheid defense force, was conscripted in 1978 and served six months as a noncombatant army doctor in Namibia, then a South African protectorate.

On his return to Cape Town, he set up a clinic in the growing squatter settlement of Crossroads, where he was the only doctor caring for 60,000 people.

The brutality of the security forces toward residents of the settlement made Toms decide he would never again serve in the army.

He became a founding member of the End Conscription Campaign, a movement that opposed drafting white South African men.

In 1985 he went on a three-week hunger strike in opposition to the deployment of troops in black townships. "As a Christian I am obliged to say no, to say never again will I put on that SADF uniform," he was quoted as saying.

Toms was one of several white men who were jailed for refusing to serve in the defense force and subjected to intimidation and harassment, including a "dirty tricks" campaign, which targeted Toms' homosexuality.

With the end of apartheid in 1994, Toms helped create a national AIDS program and pioneered the use of antiretrovirals drugs in the fight against the HIV virus.

He was also an outspoken advocate of gay rights.

Ebrahim told journalists at a briefing that the city had been told by the state pathologist's office that the death was being attributed to meningococcal meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes around the brain.
The estimated time of death was late Monday afternoon or early Monday evening.

Acting city health director Dr Ivan Bromfield said meningococcal meningitis was caused by a bacterium that many people carried in their nasal passages without any ill effects.

He said meningococcal meningitis was a communicable disease, spread between people who had been in very close contact over a prolonged period.

Symptoms included sudden fever, intense headache, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck and a fine pink rash.
In the vast majority of meningitis cases, no identifiable contacts could be found -- in other words, the source of the infection remained unknown.

He said it was possible to have a "quite acute" onset of symptoms.

Toms had been alone at home at the time of his death. He was found by police after colleagues, concerned when he failed to arrive for an important executive management team meeting, called them to investigate.

Councillor and chair of the city's health portfolio committee James Vos said he sent Toms a text message at 7am to remind him of the meeting. When Toms did not arrive or answer his cellphone, the city manager alerted the council's VIP security, who contacted the police.

Police spokesperson Billy Jones said police used a neighbour's key to get into Toms's house soon after 9am.

Specialist in infectious diseases at the University of Cape Town Dr Graeme Meintjes said in most cases it took one or two days between the emergence of the first symptoms and death, but the disease could sometimes take a "catastrophic" course.

In those cases, it could be only a matter of hours between the onset of symptoms and a fatal outcome.
One of the signs of meningococcal meningitis was confusion, and it was possible a person might become confused and be unable to seek help.

Ebrahim said it appeared that Toms's sole living relative, his brother Charles, who has been on a Pacific cruise, would arrive in Cape Town next Wednesday, and that the funeral service would likely be on April 4.

Full article: SAfrican anti-conscription activist dies | Seattle P-I (AP)
Toms died of meningitis, says city manager | Mail & Guardian
Ivan Toms found dead | Independent Online