Post-Apartheid
Ivan Toms became the national co-ordinator of the National Progressive Primary Healthcare Network in 1991 at the end of the Apartheid era. The AIDS virus was beginning to sweep through South Africa at the time. Toms, as the national co-ordinator, began to implement a series of programs to combat the spread of AIDS and HIV in the country. He was considered a pioneer in the advocacy of the use of antiretroviral drugs to fight the disease. He became director of the Students' Health and Welfare Centres Organisation in 1993, which is a non-governmental organization which runs medical clinics staffed by students in poor areas. He continued to work for non-governmental charities until 1996, when he became the Health Director in the City of Cape Town. His name is remembered in the Ivan Toms Centre for Men's Health (Cape Town) in Woodstock, Cape Town, which works in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.
South African President Thabo Mbeki awarded Ivan Toms with the Order of the Baobab in 2006 for his stance against Apartheid and his public service for South Africans in need.
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