Durban: Satish Dhupelia, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, died of COVID-19 complications in South Africa on Sunday. He was 66.
Dhupelia and his two sisters are grandchildren of Manilal Gandhi, the second son of Mahatma ‘Bapuji’ Gandhi who stayed back in South Africa to continue Gandhiji’s work after his father returned to India.
“My beloved brother has passed away after a month of illness with pneumonia… he contracted a superbug in hospital and then also COVID-19 while he was being treated. He suffered a major cardiac arrest this evening,” his sister Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie wrote on social media.
Dhupelia is survived by another sister, Kirti Menon, who also lives in Johannesburg, where she is active in various projects honouring Gandhiji’s memory.
Dhupelia worked in the media, mostly as a videographer and photographer. He was active in assisting the Gandhi Development Trust to continue the work which had been started by Bapuji at the Phoenix Settlement near Durban.
Dhupelia was a Board member of the 1860 Heritage Foundation, which a week ago commemorated the arrival of the first batch of indentured labourers from India to work in the sugarcane fields of Durban.
“Let us also not forget that we still need to stand together to achieve our final goals of equality for all and eradication of poverty,” Dhupelia had written on Facebook that day.
