Suntosh is the chief clinical psychologist for eThekwini (Durban) in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. He has spent 15 years working in public mental health, mostly based at King Dinuzulu Hospital. He is affiliated to the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He is also an alumnus of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) at Florida International University, Miami, and the Leading in Public Life programme at the University of Cape Town. Suntosh writes with a critical, decolonial, and psychopolitical lens, focusing on the intersectionality of race, sexualities, health, and identities in the post-apartheid era. He is co-author of (South) Africa’s first and only set of Practice Guidelines for Psychology Professionals Working with Sexually and Gender Diverse People and his work on LGBTQ+ affirmative psychology has been published widely, including in the Lancet Global Health. He is part of a research and training team called the African LGBTI+ Human Rights Project, arising from the Sexuality and Gender Division of PsySSA. Suntosh locates his scholar-activism firmly within the practical and material problems he writes about. He is the co-founder of diverse grassroots initiatives, including the KwaZulu-Natal Mental Health Advocacy Group, the Mental Health and Gender Initiative, and Conversations for Change. In 2015, he was named by the Mail and Guardian newspaper as one of the top 200 Young South Africans in Healthcare. In 2022, he was featured in a documentary, When the rainbow is bittersweet. Suntosh is co-editor of the book, Chasing Freedom: Histories, analyses, and voices of student activism in South Africa (CODESRIA Press).
Suntosh R Pillay
