Conscientious objector Ivan Toms is sentenced to 21 months imprisonment for refusing to serve in the SADF

Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Conscientious objector Ivan Toms is sentenced to 21 months imprisonment for refusing to serve in the SADF — source: www.news.uct.ac.za

Dr Ivan Toms was a physician who worked in the informal settlement of Crossroads in Cape Town. In 1983, he witnessed the South African Defence Force (SADF) demolish shacks in the area. When he saw the ill treatment the homeless suffered at the hands of the military, he vowed never to serve in the military again. In 1987, when Toms was called to serve, he refused. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to 21 months in prison. He was the first conscientious objector to be tried since legislation in 1983 provided for a Religious Board of Objection. Dr Ivan Toms died of meningitis in 2008.

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How we know this

01Weekly Mail Reporter, Objector Toms gets 630 days, from Mail&Guardian [online], Available at https://mg.co.za [Accessed: 13 February 2014]
02Beresford, D., Toms South African doctor opposed to the conscription that bolstered apartheid, from theGuardian, [online] Available at www.theguardian.com [Accessed: 13 February 2014]

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2014, February 28). Conscientious objector Ivan Toms is sentenced to 21 months imprisonment for refusing to serve in the SADF. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0097142

South African History Online (2014) 'Conscientious objector Ivan Toms is sentenced to 21 months imprisonment for refusing to serve in the SADF', South African History Online, 28 February. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0097142 (Accessed: 23 September 2026).

South African History Online, Conscientious objector Ivan Toms is sentenced to 21 months imprisonment for refusing to serve in the SADF [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0097142, (accessed 23 September 2026).

"Conscientious objector Ivan Toms is sentenced to 21 months imprisonment for refusing to serve in the SADF." South African History Online, 28 Feb. 2014, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0097142. Accessed 23 Sept. 2026.

South African History Online. "Conscientious objector Ivan Toms is sentenced to 21 months imprisonment for refusing to serve in the SADF." South African History Online. February 28, 2014. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0097142.