The honorary doctorate conferred posthumously on acclaimed paediatric cardiologist Prof Lungile Pepeta will serve as a permanent reminder of what he lived for.
First published in Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper
2020. The year the world changed. A year all our lives changed. A year of heightened concern, anxiety and birth, but sadly also a year of too many deaths, many more than usual. Deaths caused by a virus with a crown, called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by scientists, a virus which in turn causes coronavirus disease, also known as Covid-19.
While the world was desperately searching for much-needed quick fixes and ammunition to slay the virus, the wall that stood between utter devastation, hunger and even more death, were people, ordinary people who look like all of us. But ordinary people who could not and did not simply sit at home.