José Augusto Seco Machado Gil

Dr José Augusto Seco Machado Gil, psychiatrist, (March 13, 1953, Coimbra, Portugal – June 15, 1996, Johannesburg, South Africa, Burial: Conchada-Coimbra, Portugal), was the son of Dr. José Machado Gil and Dr.ª Maria Virgínia Nogueira Seco (both teachers of mathematics). He lived separated from his wife, a Portuguese doctor, who lives in Johannesburg with their children.

Life
Retrospectively about Doctor José Augusto Seco Machado Gil one has to underline his social, civic and political conscience manifested and shared in minority groups of reflexion and action that had the value of coming to light and make them heard before the April 25, 1974, Carnation Revolution, (Portuguese Democratic Revolution). We all have a bright memory of Doctor Gil’s militant posture in the Democratics Students Movements, also Associative Movements where he made himself noticed at the Faculty of Medicine of Coimbra University, in which he took his degree.

Work
European by birth, roots, life, values and culture, José Augusto Machado Gil lived in South Africa from the beginning of the 80s due to his personal and professional life and there, also, besides his profession, Psychiatrist, profession he wanted to honour, besides a well succeeded and intense professional life that distinguished him in Johannesburg’s society, he also expressively put in practice his duty of citizenship.

In memoriam
After his death, Colleagues, Patients, and Friends, and many people of several Continents, specially residents and ex-residents of South-Africa/Johannesburg, have testified all their respect by Doctor José Augusto Machado Gil as a Psychiatrist, as a man and intellectual, as a man of work and culture, as a person, as a responsible and active citizen, that never for a second forgotten the social, political, economical, cultural issues of the society in which he lived and the "Human Rights."