BACKGROUND :

David Sanders died unexpectedly on 30 August 2019 aged 74. David was a founding member of the People's Health Movement, founder of the University of the Western Cape School of Public Health; prolific author (3 books, almost 50 chapters; over 100 peer reviewed articles; and many more articles); a leader and a mentor in in global public health; and had been involved in PMAC since inception, as a active participant and speaker; and also at times as member of the IOC and scientific committees. David spent more than 40 years involved in research, advocacy, policy development and mentoring and teaching in global health, comprehensive primary health care, food sovereignty, nutrition, health equity, and health as a human right, in South Africa, Zimbabwe and internationally. He combined scientific rigor with social activism, always speaking out against injustice and inequality. His seminal book The Struggle for Health: Medicine and the Politics of Underdevelopment, published in 1985, inspired a generation of young doctors to see their work as more than providing care and that it extends to the social determinants of health.