Public health pioneer David Sanders hailed
LATE UWC Emeritus Professor David Sanders has been hailed as a pioneer of public health and champion of economic and social justice in South Africa.
In a statement the Department of Science and Technology, the National Research Foundation and the Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS) said it was with great sadness that the researchers, staff and students of the centre learnt of the untimely death of Sanders on Friday.
Sanders was a founding member of the CoE-FS, from the first meetings when the proposal was being prepared at the UWC.
He continued to serve as a principal investigator (PI) of the programme focused on causes and consequences of malnutrition until 2016.
“Always concerned with the structural factors underpinning food insecurity rather than just its symptoms, Sanders continued to gently guide the CoE-FS when he joined our international steering committee,” the statement said.
CoE-FS director Professor Julian May said: “David will be remembered for his commitment to a just health and public nutrition system and his prodigious output as an active researcher and an activist.”
Long-time colleague and co-PI on the CoE-FS programme on malnutrition, Professor Swart, said: “David believed that nutrition and health was political and that without strong social mobilisation nothing will change.”
The centre said it believed that Sanders would prefer that his passing be an inspiration for renewed energy to further these goals rather than messages of farewell.
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David will be remembered as an active researcher Professor Julian May CoE-FS director