Thomas was community health projects pioneer
Former MEC helped build democratic SA
Dr Trudy Thomas, the Eastern Cape’s first health MEC in the democratic South Africa, has died aged 82.
Thomas died on Sunday in Johannesburg where she had lived her last years with the family of her eldest daughter Lindy Thomas, following her suffering a stroke in 2016.
She was a lifelong health activist and democrat, with a gentle but firm voice and a will of steel.
She was a pioneer of community health programmes in South Africa, and was active in Eastern Cape’s rural health projects during apartheid.
Thomas was one of the province’s key nation builders of a democratic South Africa, serving as ANC MEC for health from 1994 to 1999.
She is also remembered for her instrumental role in building the post-apartheid provincial health department, which entailed bringing together the administrations of the former homelands of Transkei and Ciskei and sections of the former Cape provincial administration.
Thomas was born on April 23 1936 in Gauteng, and grew up in a working-class family in Krugersdorp on the West Rand.
She trained as a medical doctor at the University of the Witwatersrand and Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.
Her son-in-law and the author of her memoir Healthy Outrage, Professor Franz Krüger, said the family was broken-hearted.
“We are very sad and will feel her going. We are, however, pleased at the full life she’s lived and the legacy she’s left behind for us,” Krüger said.
Thomas retired to live with her family in Chintsa West, about 38km northeast of East London, where she continued to write until she suffered a stroke in 2016.
Former ANC MP Bevan Goqwana, who took over the reins as MEC after Thomas, expressed shock at her passing. Goqwana said Thomas’s positive contribution towards capacitating the public health system would be remembered forever.
“The challenge of repairing the health system was too big for the number of years she was MEC, but she left a huge mark,” Goqwana said.
Eastern Cape health spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said: “The department extends messages of condolences to the family, relatives and colleagues of Dr Thomas.
“She laid a good foundation for public healthcare and her contribution to the healthcare sector is invaluable.”
Krüger yesterday said Thomas’s funeral arrangements were still being worked out.
He said they were planning to hold memorial services in Johannesburg, Cape Town and East London.
Dr Thomas is survived by four children and six grandchildren.