Pic: NMU
Nelson Mandela University says it has learned with sadness of the passing of its Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Professor Lungile Pepeta.
NMU says his passing is not only a great loss to the University, which is gearing up to launch its medical school, but to Nelson Mandela Bay, the Eastern Cape and country.
Professor Pepeta joined the University on 1 January 2017, as the vision for establishing a medical school that offers an alternative educational model towards meeting the country’s growing need for health professionals, was gaining momentum.
NMU says more recently, he helped spearhead the University’s response to COVID-19 within the institution, in communities and society at large, working with healthcare professionals, and education, business and political leadership.
His commitment to public health was evident during his tenure at Dora Nginza Hospital in his capacity as Acting CEO and Acting Clinical Governance Manager.
It was this passion and commitment that made him the perfect fit for what Mandela University envisaged as a model for its Health Sciences Faculty and Medical School, which has a focus on primary healthcare, that is preventative rather than curative, working to serve particularly the poor and least served parts of our country.
He has a proven track record as an agent of change wherever he has worked – from his stint as a medical intern in 1999 in the rural Dordrecht hospital right up to his tenure as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, where he showed stellar stewardship.
