09/09/2026
It is with great sadness that SACPLAN shares the passing of Professor Abiodun Matthew Dayomi, a planner, teacher, and scholar whose remarkable career spanned nearly five decades and different countries from Lagos to Aix-en-Provence, from Paris to Victoria, and finally to South Africa, where he left an enduring mark on our profession.
Professor Dayomi held professorships at the University of Ibadan, the University of Limpopo, the University of Venda, where he served as Head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he was Professor and Academic Leader for Town and Regional Planning and Housing from 2010 to 2016. Over the course of his career, he personally supervised dozens of dissertations, shaping the thinking of generations of planners across South Africa and beyond.
Closer to home, Professor Dayomi served two terms on the Council of the South African Council for Planners (SACPLAN), chairing the Education and Training Committee from 2008 to 2016, work that directly shaped an entire generation of South African planners, and whose influence continues to be felt in our profession today.
A registered planner with SACPLAN, and a scholar whose published work spanned urban transport, remote sensing, land use, and the interrelationship between planning and politics.
Rest in peace, Professor Dayomi. Your legacy lives on in the planners you shaped and the profession you helped build.
Our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends, colleagues, and all who had the privilege of learning from him.
