Satish Dhupelia, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, died of COVID-19 complications in Johannesburg on Sunday. Dhupelia's sister Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie posted a message confirming that her brother had died of COVID-19 related complications. According to Uma, Satish had contracted the disease in the hospital while he was undergoing treatment for pneumonia. "My beloved brother has passed on after a month of illness with pneumonia, a superbug contracted in hospital and then COVID-19 also contracted while he was being treated. He suffered a major cardiac arrest this evening," Uma said in a social media post. Satish died just three days after his birthday.
Besides Uma, Dhupelia leaves back another sister, Kirti Menon, who lives in Johannesburg, where she is active in various projects honouring the memory of Gandhi. The three siblings are descendants of Manilal Gandhi, who Mahatma Gandhi left behind in South Africa to continue his work after he returned to India after spending two decades. Dhupelia, who spent most of his life in media, especially as a videographer and photographer, was also very active in assisting the Gandhi Development Trust to continue the work started by the Mahatma at the Phoenix Settlement near Durban. Dhupelia was also a member of the Board of the 1860 Heritage Foundation, which on Monday November 16 commemorated the arrival of the first indentured labourers from India to work on the sugar cane fields of Durban.