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The Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has espoused the values of respect for human rights and human dignity, intellectual rigour and accountability. These values, amongst others, are part of our 2030 vision which guides us in building a transformative inclusive community. These values also form the basis of our strong regard for the value of life especially the lives of those who are found on the margins of society.

In the spirit of these values, we support the calls for an inquiry into the testimony provided by Dr David Fowler, a UCT alumnus, at the trial of police officer Derek Chauvin, as well as other reports of Dr Fowler’s professional conduct. We trust that such an inquiry will establish whether there has been a pattern of misinformation and a misuse of medical science in support of brutality perpetrated by members of state institutions.

These events have caused us to pause and reflect on our legacy as a South African institution and the often negative associations between health professionals and the abuses of the state instruments of power and authority.

The case of the late Steve Biko has been instructional in the development of a professional perspective. Steve Biko was tortured and died in police custody in South Africa in 1977. It took until 1985 for the medical community in this country, through the then professional association (Medical Association of South Africa) and the accrediting body (South African Medical and Dental Council), to act against the doctors implicated in Biko’s unethical treatment. Drs Ivor Lang and Benjamin Tucker have come to represent the infamous exemplar for conduct by doctors who become instruments of the state apparatus through their refusal to recognise the indignity suffered by people (usually Black), who are victims of state violence. On the other hand, Drs Yosuf Veriava, Trefor Jenkins, Phillip Tobias and Frances Ames (the latter, a UCT alumnus and clinical leader) have become role models for the desired conduct from medical professionals in the face of the abuse of the doctors’ power and the lack of will to exercise such power in the defense of vulnerable prisoners or members of the broader community.

This story has significant echoes in the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the USA which refers to disproportionate uses of force and then the subsequent inability to assign clear causes of death in many cases of police violence against African Americans. The emergent discourse continues in many sectors of society in which the value of minorities in the USA is minimized. The consequence is continual deprivation of equal treatment in the health sector. Indeed, there are now numerous examples of discrimination of African American and other marginalised groups, whether through differential approaches to their care or, as recently described in conversations by the American Psychiatric Association, inappropriate descriptions of their conditions or lack of access to education in specialist disciplines for minority groups.

Recognising our own long and complex legacy from colonial origins through an apartheid era to this time in which we make an active commitment to transformation, the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCT:

• condemns action taken by health professionals in support of police and state violence. The #BlackLivesMatter movement has highlighted that such violence has been directed at Black citizens in the USA. Similar violence has been experienced in our South African context as well.
• calls on the alumni of our Faculty to commit to a professional identity which reflects a natural advocacy for the marginalised in society and is constantly responsive to the need for social justice.
• commits to the ongoing transformation of the relations of power, identity and knowledge with regard to all aspects of our mission of education, research and service.
• commits to the development of social accountability through its engagements with partners in the service of our people, research which is responsive, and curricula which embed a professional identity of social justice; and
• commits to advocating for justice on occasions in which rights are violated, especially for those whose voices are minimized through their social condition.

At the conclusion of their learning and teaching, professional graduates in the UCT Faculty of Health Sciences take an oath in the spirit of Hippocrates. This oath includes, amongst others, the following statements:

I will not permit considerations of age, gender, race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disease, disability or any other factor to adversely affect the care I give to patients

I will uphold human rights and civil liberties to advance health, even under threat

I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity.

The complex challenges of our century demand that we renew these pledges in our daily quest to enhance the health and wellness of our communities.

Issued by University of Cape Town