UCT must take responsibility for Prof Mayosi's death – former Fees Must Fall leader
31 July 2018
Former Fees Must Fall leader Chumani Maxwele has insisted that the University of Cape Town (UCT) take full responsibility for the death of dean of health sciences Professor Bongani Mayosi, saying Mayosi was a keen supporter of the student protests.
The accomplished academic, who suffered from depression, died from suicide at the age of 51 on Friday.
Maxwele put the blame firmly on the doorstep of UCT after vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng held a press briefing on Sunday where she said the Fees Must Fall protests had caused a lot of trauma at the university – something that both staff and students were still reeling from (see transcript here).
On Tuesday, she clarified her remarks and said she in no way meant that the protests were to blame for Mayosi's death. She said while the protests "were not wrong", they were "not kind" to Mayosi.