Sean Davison might also tour his adoptive country with a high-profile New Zealand euthanasia campaigner before he faces trial in the High Court in Dunedin.
Davison's bail was varied this month so he could leave the city to be with his family in Cape Town, to return to New Zealand for trial in the middle of next year.
Details of the application were suppressed, but Davison's lawyer Len Anderson yesterday confirmed, when asked, it was supported by the University of Western Cape, where Davison is a professor.
New Zealand has no extradition treaty with South Africa, and the university has made his return for trial a condition of his employment.
Davison told the Otago Daily Times he would return to Dunedin and that he wanted to contribute to seeking changes to end-of-life laws in South Africa.
He joined the Dignity New Zealand Trust, formerly EXIT NZ, before he left Dunedin and he wanted to set up an affiliate organisation in South Africa, Davison said.
He was in regular contact with Dignity New Zealand founding trustee Lesley Martin who, in 2004, was sentenced to 15 months' jail for the attempted murder of her terminally ill mother.
Ms Martin was charged with attempted murder after writing about the events leading to the 1999 death of her cancer-suffering mother, Joy.
Davison was charged after writing Before We Say Goodbye and later admitting he gave his mother, Dr Patricia Ferguson, morphine before she died in 2006.
Davison said he admired Ms Martin's work in seeking a law change on euthanasia in New Zealand.
"I have now joined her organisation and will seek Lesley's assistance in starting an organisation called Dignity South Africa, with the goal of achieving a similar law change in South Africa."
Davison "realised that when I am old and possibly have a terminal illness, I will have limited ability to influence the law makers".
"I intend to contribute to the process of seeking law change and I must do it now, while I have the strength to do so."
Ms Martin said she understood there was interest in the South African media to pay for her and Davison to conduct a speaking tour of the country early next year.
Assisted death was a global issue but it would be interesting to see how it was considered in South Africa, which was used to dealing with "hard-core" human rights issues.
Ms Martin was counselling Davison with what she learned since being thrust into the assisted-death debate after helping her mother at the end of her life.
She said she got similar advice a decade ago from Australia-based Dr Philip Nitschke, the controversial pro-euthanasia campaigner later abandoned by EXIT NZ amid concerns over his "disturbing suicide methodologies".
