Charles Simkins Death, Obituary – The passing of Charles Simkins was tragically brought to the attention of the Helen Suzman Foundation, which was overcome with grief upon hearing the news. His condition forced him to spend the last few months in the hospital. Prior to his illness, he served as the head of research at the Foundation, a post he had held for the previous 8 years. After receiving a Rhodes scholarship and graduating from Oxford University with a master’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics, he had previously earned a bachelor’s degree in physics with honors from the University of the Witwatersrand. After that, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Economics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg.
At the University of the Witwatersrand, he was the first person to ever occupy the Helen Suzman Chair in Political Economy. Helen Suzman refers to Charles as the incumbent in her memoirs, titled In No Uncertain Terms. She also mentions that the advertisement for that post specified that applicants for the chair should have a strong record of research, publication, and leadership, and should have a sympathy with the ideals expressed by Mrs. Helen Suzman. Charles fulfilled all of these requirements. After that, he served as the Vice President of St. Augustine College for some time.
For the most part of his life, Charles had been active in several organizations and activities that were part of the civil society. This activity initially manifested itself during his time as a student at Wits, specifically when he was elected to the Student Representative Council (SRC) as Treasurer. When he was residing in Natal in the early 1970s, he was heavily involved in the process of working to establish a non-racial trade union movement. This took place during this time. Because of this, eventually, he would be barred from practicing law for a period of five years under the Suppression of Communism Act.
During this period, he was granted permission to relocate to the Maritzburg campus, where he established the Development Studies Research Group. This group would go on to become an essential facilitator of research in the fields of social and economic issues. Rae Gower, whom he would later wed, was the person he met and fell in love with during his time in Maritzburg.
After the order prohibiting him from entering the country was revoked, he relocated to Cape Town and began working in the Economics Department at the University of Cape Town. Charles relocated to Johannesburg in the late 1970s in order to take a position with the Urban Foundation.
Subsequently, he found work at the University of Witwatersrand and St. Augustine College. In 2014, Charles became a member of the Foundation. He was successful in building up a research profile that has, over the course of many years, regularly produced research that is widely read (and quoted) on a broad range of subjects that are topical to South Africans. This research covered a wide variety of topics, including health and land reform, infrastructure problems (including water and electricity), and constitutional issues, particularly those surrounding electoral reform. This research was undertaken with the overarching goal of providing an informed audience in South Africa with succinct background studies on matters of general interest, containing noticeably more content and rigor than is often available in the media.
In addition to the quality of his work, Charles will be remembered as someone who possessed the rare gift of combining an impressive academic background with a no-nonsense approach to analyzing complicated practical issues confronting South African society. He managed to do all of this without any trace of affectation or pretense, which is something that will make him stand out in our minds. We are also quite cognizant of the extraordinary care that Charles had taken in taking care of his wife, who had been afflicted with a serious illness for a number of years and who passed away only a few days before he did. I pray that both of them find eternal rest. On Tuesday, December 13, 2022, at 11 o’clock in the morning, the funeral service for Charles will take place at St. Francis Anglican Church located on Tyrone Avenue in the Parkview neighborhood of Johannesburg.