Ivan Toms

Ivan Toms (11 July 1952 – 25 March 2008) was a South African physician, who battled the Apartheid era government as a prominent anti-Apartheid and anti-conscription activist. At the time of his death in 2008, Toms was serving as the Director of Health for the city of Cape Town, South Africa.

Early life

Ivan Toms was born in Cape Town on 11 July 1952. He received his medical degree from the University of Cape Town in 1976.

Conscription

Toms was drafted into the national service in the South African Defence Force (SADF), as a non-combatant doctor in 1978. He opposed the goals of the SADF, but refused to leave South Africa. He spent much of his six months as a doctor in Namibia, which was then known as South West Africa and was controlled by South Africa.

Once he returned to Cape Town, Toms set up a medical clinic in the squatter settlement of Crossroads, which is located about 15 km outside of the city in the Cape Flats area. He was the only doctor who served the Crossroads' population of approximately 60,000 people. In September 1983, Toms witnessed a three-week-long confrontation between the Crossroads community and the South African police and security forces, who were trying to tear down "illegal" buildings in the settlement. After witnessing the violence and brutality of the raid, Toms vowed never to serve in the SADF again, even in a non-combatant capacity. He went public with his opinions on what he had witnessed and became a founding member of the End Conscription Campaign (ECC) in 1983. Toms' co-founders of the ECC included other prominent anti-conscription activists including Nan Cross.