LIMPOPO IeaderIeaderDISPATCHES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPODISPATCHES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO

LIMPOPO NUMBER 5SPRING 2005

THE CASE OF THE MARGINALISED CHICKENSGenetic research on Southern Africa’s

tough indigenous poultry

LIMPOPO: THE AFRICACONNECTION

Examining the linkages between a major university and the rest of the continent

THE CASE OF THE MARGINALISED CHICKENSGenetic research on Southern Africa’s

tough indigenous poultry

LIMPOPO: THE AFRICACONNECTION

Examining the linkages between a major university and the rest of the continent

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question BEFORE the case wasaired on Carte Blanche. TheCouncil’s decision has subsequently been contested in court, which means that thematter is now sub judice.

• E x i t p r o c e d u r e s . CarteBlanche exposed the case of a Medunsa medical studentwho had entered into aninternship before passing certain examinations.University management pointsout that the student in questiondoes not hold a medicaldegree – a situation thatapplies to all medical interns.

• Management irregulari t ies.The accusations relating toinappropriate fringe benefitsand procurement irregularitiesare immediately admitted byUniversity management.However, it is pointed out thatsoon after the merger hadtaken effect, and monthsBEFORE the Carte Blancheexpose, the University hadordered an investigation by a firm of external auditors aspart of efforts to harmonise the two campuses. This investigation had uncoveredseveral irregularities that were reported to the nationalMinister of Education andimmediately addressed. It is

certainly true that some senioradministrators at Medunsawere not flattered by the investigation.

In the broader context of themerger and Limpopo University’sdetermination to couple twovibrant institutions to a singlestrategic vision, it is not surprisingthat heads could roll. Indeed, theUniversity has recently partedcompany with two seniorMedunsa staff members whoappeared to be operating outsidethe new vision. At this stage,University management has nointention of elaborating on thedetails of their departure.

The strategic vision of the newUniversity of Limpopo is to buildon the multiple strengths of bothinstitutions to establish what twosuccessive national Ministers of Education have called ‘the premier African university’. Thisinstitution will be wholly situatedin Limpopo province. Medunsa’shealth focus will be a huge contribution to the powerful new university, as will the manycentres of excellence alreadyexisting on both campuses ...

Read about plenty of thesecentres in this edition ofL i m p o p o L e a d e r .

o

News flash:THE LATEST ON MEDUNSA AND THE MEDIAON 12 JUNE 2005 THE TV PROGRAMME CARTE BLANCHEPRESENTED AN ‘EXPOSE’ OFCERTAIN ALLEGED WRONG-DOINGS ON THE MEDUNSACAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OFLIMPOPO. In particular, attentionwas focused on irregularities instudent entrance and exit procedures, as well as certainquestionable managerial practices.

It is important that thisresponse of senior LimpopoUniversity management is seen in the context of the merger, on 1 January 2005, between the oldUniversity of the North andMedunsa. Such mergers are nevereasy. Nevertheless, the Limpopomerger has been characterised byserious attempts to harmonise thetwo institutions and to establish acommon high standard both in theacademic and ethical spheres.

Details of the managementresponse to the Carte Blancheaccusations are as follows:• E n t r a n c e p r o c e d u r e s .

Carte Blanche detailed a specific case where the established entrance criteriaappeared to have beenignored. What was not statedwas that the University Councilhad decided to reverse its ruling to admit the student in

The letters page has been moved to page 32 for this edition of L i m p o p o L e a d e r .

EDITO

RIAL

tTHE MERGER BETWEEN MEDUNSA AND THE OLD UNIVERSITY OF THENORTH TO CREATE THE NEW UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO IS NEVER FARFROM THE NEWS. Most readers will be aware of the publicity thatrecently shone an uncompromising light onto activities on the Medunsacampus. University leadership has dealt decisively and honestly with thissituation, as can be seen from the statement published on page 1.

Of more lasting import, the merger process is beginning to create aninstitution that will contain the very best available from both campuses.The current Minister of Education, as well as her predecessor, have bothat various times referred to the new University of Limpopo as ‘a premierAfrican university’ in the making. This is exactly what is happening. And what better place for such an activity to be taking place than inSouth Africa’s most northerly province – Limpopo – that takes pride instyling itself the ‘gateway to Africa’?

This edition of L i m p o p o L e a d e r takes pride therefore in lookingin some detail at the Africa connection. An exciting picture emerges. The merged University is moving rapidly to fulfil the expectations ofMinister Naledi Pandor and ex-Minister Kader Asmal – and to pull in the same direction as its outward-looking provincial home.

Read about Medunsa’s remarkable National School of Public Health,most successful institution of its type in the whole country. Throughsophisticated online software the School is teaching postgraduate students from many SADC countries as well as plenty of South Africansas well. Or consider the networking efforts of Turfloop’s Centre for RuralCommunity Empowerment that has linked many of Limpopo’s small-scalefarmers to their counterparts in Southern, Central and East Africa.

Direct Africa linkages aside, there’s plenty to grab the attention.Turfloop has taken a significant step towards the establishment of aCultural Centre, complete with theatre and collections of provincial fine art, literature both written and oral, and music. On the Medunsacampus, on the other hand, the work of the South African Vaccinationand Immunisation Centre underscores the government’s ExpandedProgramme on Immunisation. Even these two widely differing centreshave African connections. The first speaks powerfully of the cultural roots of South Africa’s most rural and traditional province. The second is planning to extend its reach into other Southern African countries inthe next few years.

Read and enjoy – and don’t forget to encourage your friends to subscribe to a university publication that deals with real issues and a premier tertiary institution’s engagement in them.

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IT’S A TRUISM TO SAY THAT ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS FACING SUSTAINABLE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHERN AFRICA ISTHE HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC. The statistics are depressing, and ironically the mostadvanced country in the region – South Africa – is the worst affected. But it’s notall doom and gloom. For some better news emanating from the University ofLimpopo – and don’t forget that this institution represents a merging of the oldUniversity of the North and the old Medical University of Southern Africa – readthe Summer issue of L i m p o p o L e a d e r due out in early December. Onceagain, you’ll see a powerful institution working hand in glove with the provincialgovernment – and with an assortment of national bodies – to curb the country’sbiggest ever public health threat.

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c o v e r p i c t u r e :Genetic Research on indigenous Southern African poultry breeds takes offunder the guiding hand of Dr David Norris of the School of Agriculture onthe Turfloop campus of the University of Limpopo. See story on page 14

p a g e 1 :The latest on Medunsa and the Media

p a g e 4 :Limpopo: the Africa Connection. The province styles itself the ‘gateway toAfrica’, and the University of the same name is working to become a ‘premier African institution’

p a g e 6 :Setting the African Scene on both campuses of the University of Limpopo

p a g e 1 1 :Crashing aeroplanes and Hong Kong Racehorses. An ophthalmologist hasgiven Medunsa pride of international place in the treatment of cataracts andglaucoma

p a g e 1 4 :The Case of the Marginalised Chickens. A geneticist takes a fresh took atindigenous Southern African poultry

P a g e 1 6 :Biotechnology Collaborations. Useful links exist between some SouthernAfrican universities and the Turfloop Department of Biochemistry, MolecularBiology & Biotechnology

p a g e 1 7 :Small Versus Big: An Important Agricultural Debate. The case for the small-scale farmer as espoused by Turfloop’s Centre for Rural CommunityEmpowerment

p a g e 2 0 :A Passion for Doing Hands. The story of an orthopaedic surgeon who hasplaced Medunsa on the world map of hand surgery

p a g e 2 2 :Securing the Health of Future Generations. Read how Medunsa’s SAVIC ishelping the state with its Expanded Programme on Immunisation

p a g e 2 4 :Online Postgraduate Studies for Africa. The National School of PublicHealth on the Medunsa campus is the most successful institution of its kindin the country

p a g e 2 7 : The Legacy of Ants. A Turfloop professor is involved in studying the remainsof 25 000 year old anthills in Namaqualand

p a g e 2 9 :A Permanent Home at Last for Turfloop’s drama students and a growing collection of local art

p a g e 3 2 :Letters to the Editor

IN THIS ISSUE

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LIMPOPO: THE AFRICA CONNECTION

South Africa’s Limpopo Province

(marked in orange on this map)

calls itself the ‘Gateway to Africa’.

In support of this perception, the

University of Limpopo acknowledges

its position in the continental thick

of things when it asserts in its

slogan: ‘African excellence – global

leadership’. But perhaps the real sur-

prise is just how intricate the

relationships are becoming between

Limpopo and the rest of the

continent. For a start, there’s our

SADC neighbours (marked in green

on this map). But the network of

relationships extends far beyond this

growing regionalism. Look at the red

bullet points adorning so many parts

of the map. These are just some of

the linkages between Africa and the

University that have been covered in

L i m p o p o L e a d e r in this and

previous issues.

• SWAZILAND

• BOTSWANA• NAMIBIA

• ANGOLA

• ZIMBABWE • MADAGASCAR

• ZAMBIA• MALAWI

• LESOTHO

• MOZAMBIQUE

• DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

OF CONGO (ZAIRE)

• MAURITIUS

• CAMEROON

GABONCONGO

CHADSUDAN

EGYPTLIBYAALGERIA

MAURITANIA

MALI

GUINEA

NIGER

BURKINA FASO

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

UINEA ISSAU

IVORY COASTLIBERIA

TOGO

MOROCCO

WESTER

N SAH

ARA

TUNI

SIA

SOMALI REP.ETHIOPIA

CENTRAL AFRICAN REP.

• NIGERIA

• GHANA

• SIERRA LEONE

• SENEGAL

• BENIN

• SOUTH AFRICA

• RWANDA• KENYA

• TANZANIA

• UGANDA

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iWithout doubt. In the Premier’s

Office in Polokwane there’s animportant document doing therounds. It’s the Draft FrameworkTowards Implementation of theNew Partnership for Africa’sDevelopment (Nepad) ThroughLimpopo, in the Context of theRegion. It’s a cumbersome title,but the document has a straight-forward intent: to prepare theground for large cross-borderprojects linked to Limpopo’sProvincial Growth andDevelopment Strategy, as well asto the overall development aims of Nepad. What are these largecross-border projects? Nothingconcrete has been announced, butpersistent whispers are emergingaround a railway project, a waterpipeline project, and even a harbourproject in northern Mozambiquethat could have massive implicationsfor agricultural downstreamingand exportation from the northernregions of Limpopo province.

Not unexpectedly, the DraftFramework document makes frequent reference to ‘humanskills’, to the idea that developmentis ‘about people’, to ‘humanresource development’, and to‘science, research and technology’.So the big ideas in circulation inthe Premier’s office will need tobe matched by big ideas insidethe University of Limpopo, aninstitution that increasingly seesfor itself a regional role.

But just how African is theUniversity? In the pages that follow, a rich and surprising picture emerges.

IN THE 1980S THERE WEREMACHINEGUNS MOUNTEDUNDER BEIT BRIDGE AND LITTLETHOUGHT OF A CONTINENTALCONTEXT FOR A SOUTH AFRICAUNDER SELF-IMPOSED SIEGE.Even in the1990s, as the borderswere demilitarised and the country engaged with democracyfor the first time, there was littleappreciation of the rest of Africa – except as a worrying source ofillegal immigrants. Only in theearly 2000s did the sense of isolation crumble sufficiently for a clearer understanding toemerge of how close the rest ofAfrica actually was.

Not surprisingly, the northernparts of the country were earliestinfluenced. From Limpopoprovince’s Mapungubwe hill, theslow meanderings of the ShashiRiver mark the dividing linebetween Botswana andZimbabwe. Further east, in the farnorth of the Kruger National Park,one encounters a strong fencethat separates Limpopo fromMozambique. The very proximityof these other countries, once a cause for concern and the presence of the military, nowserves to free the imagination.Limpopo province is, by its ownadmission, the ‘gateway to Africa’.

But what does this mean? Itmeans an end to the old isolation.It suggests collaborations andpartnerships, trade and regionalism,common challenges and commoncause. But what is the reality? Are the suggestions beginning tocome true?

SETTING THE AFRICAN SCENE AT LIMPOPO UNIVERSITY

bBOTH CAMPUSES OF LIMPOPO UNIVERSITY LOOKUNMISTAKABLY AFRICAN.

The Medunsa campus sits in the middle of the teeming peri-urban sprawl of what used to be a pieceof the old Bophuthatswana Bantustan. Turfloop is builtaround rock protrusions as big as hills and coveredwith lavish Southern African vegetation. It too is surrounded by the noise and flamboyance of oldhomelands. There’s dust and blue skies on these campuses – and you could hardly be further, visuallyat any rate, from Oxbridge or the American Ivy League.

What about the students and staff?The students on both campuses are largely but not

exclusively black, and some of them are from otherAfrican countries. Around 350 of them are, in fact,out of a total student body exceeding 13 000. This is a lot less than the 5% provided for in the SADC protocol, but the numbers are growing. Many of themrepresent neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe,Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Namibia. Thenthere are others from Mozambique and Angola. Some have come from even further afield, from countries such as Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda,Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the island ofMauritius.

When Medunsa was established in 1976, it wasnamed the Medical University of Southern (not South)Africa. Part of this was a reflection of the officialapartheid desire for the emerging homelands to betaken seriously as independent countries. But evenfrom those early days, foreign African medical students were present on campus, as foreign studentsfound their way onto Turfloop.

On the Turfloop campus there’s a University ofLimpopo International Students Association. The chairperson of UNILISA (as it’s called) is a third-yearBSc computer science student from Zimbabwe, TapiwaZvenyika. His deputy is Mozambican Sky Mkuti who’s

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majoring in international politics. Third member ofUNILISA’s executive is treasurer Goldmarks Makamure,a final-year psychology student from Masvingo inZimbabwe.

‘We found,’ they said, ‘that there were many issueswhere international students needed to be represented. There was no organisation to do this, so we formed one.’

So UNILISA came into being in 2004 to assist withthe integration of international students into the localscene, both socially and academically. TheAssociation organises gatherings and social functions,as well as independence-day celebrations for each ofthe countries represented on campus. There are movesafoot to make contact with international students onthe Medunsa campus soon.

‘We’re proud to be here at Limpopo,’ the UNILISAexecutive said. ‘The university has good academicstandards and infrastructure. Particularly the librariesand the computer equipment,’ they added.

The various academic staffs on the two Limpopocampuses have been drawn from as many parts of thecontinent as the students. The best way of finding thisout is to become a regular reader of L i m p o p oL e a d e r , but listen to just two academics talkingabout themselves and the University’s many-sidedAfrican connections.

At Medunsa, here’s Professor GboyegaOgunbanjo, a smiling and friendly man from Nigeria(now a naturalised South African) who is currently theDeputy Dean (research) in the Faculty of Medicine. His speciality is Family Medicine, and he talks enthusiastically about initiatives in this field in theDemocratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Kenya.

Four family physicians from the DRC have qualifiedwith the Family Medicine master’s degree fromMedunsa The Family Medicine training programmewas initiated by the evangelical churches operating in

the DRC with input from the Department of FamilyMedicine and Primary Health Care at Medunsa. The churches run the mission hospitals where mostrural doctors work. This relationship hopefully will leadto the establishment of family medicine postgraduatecourses being offered at the Kisangani and Kinshasamedical schools. The present relationship betweenMedunsa and the DRC evangelical churches is supported by funding from the Belgian government.

Medunsa has also helped to establish a Departmentof Family Medicine at Moi University in the westKenyan city of Eldoret.

Ogunbanjo shakes his head when asked aboutjoint research projects with these East and CentralAfrican institutions. ‘The main problem has been lackof resources for research in most parts of Africa. That’swhy these linkages with Medunsa are so important.

‘It’s a similar situation at Medunsa with its recentmerger with the University of the North. I see realopportunities developing through the cross-pollinationof ideas and projects between the various facultiesand disciplines. Medunsa was the only medical university in the whole of Africa. We have sufferedfrom this alienation and from the influence of otherfaculties. So the merger makes good sense – eventhough the distance between the two campuses presents a real challenge at this stage.’

Ogunbanjo was born in Lagos in 1958. He did hisundergraduate training and internship at the Universityof Lagos, and then completed his one-year nationalservice at Badagry General Hospital, a rural hospitalnear the Benin border. This experience opened hiseyes to rural realities and needs. After four years,Nigeria launched their Technical Aid Programme toAfrica and the Caribbean. Ogunbanjo jumped at theopportunity of working abroad, and very soon foundhimself doctoring in war-torn Mozambique.

‘I was based in Maputo,’ he recalls. ‘It was pretty

Sky Mkuti, Goldmarks Makamure, Tapiwa Zvenyika

P A G E 8

SETTING THE AFRICAN SCENE AT LIMPOPO UNIVERSITY

tough. I remember that fresh milk was a real luxury. I had to learn Portuguese. There was lots of fightingOne year, the Frelimo national conference was interrupted when Renamo fighters came into the city - we saw them fighting from the windows of ouraccommodation.’

Later, he went to Lesotho under his own steam,where he worked at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital inMaseru. He had begun his postgraduate studies infamily medicine and primary health care while still inNigeria. After the interruption caused by working inMozambique and Lesotho, he recommenced and completed his training with Medunsa. He found hisway onto the teaching staff at Medunsa in 1992.

‘Yes, I’m fully committed to this place,’ he acknowledges. ‘It has huge potential. The merger has huge potential. The University of Limpopo canbecome a real force in the SADC region and in therest of Africa.’

Norman Nyazema is Professor of Pharmacology on the Turfloop campus, and he tends to agree. ‘It’shappening, yes,’ he says, referring to the Africanfocus emerging at the University of Limpopo. ‘It maynot be absolutely discernible yet, or at the correctlevel, but its definitely taking shape.

Nyazema recalls the meetings held in connectionwith the choice of a name for the merged institution.Limpopo was settled on because the Limpopo Riverruns through several Southern African countries. So thename – Limpopo University – brings an immediate international flavour to activities on both campuses.

‘When we talk about being a ‘gateway to Africa’we should be putting a certain viewpoint into action.We should consciously be the institution that is pullingup the expertise and influence of the South Africanuniversities to the south of us and channelling it intothe rest of the continent. In the same way, the realitiesfrom the north should be penetrating through us downinto the institutions to the south. We should be the conduit, the gateway.’

Nyazema came to South Africa in 2002 from the College of Health Sciences at the University ofZimbabwe in Harare. He was the director of postgraduate training there. Indeed, Nyazema wasProfessor Norman Nyazema

Professor Gboyega Ogunbanjo

P A G E 9

born in Harare (then Salisbury) in 1951.‘I always say that I has born in Southern Rhodesia,

started school in the Federation of Rhodesia andNyasaland, finished high school in UDI Rhodesia,went into exile for ten years, and then returned towork in Zimbabwe.’

Nyazema’s political career began in 1971 when,as a prefect at school, he was arrested for helping toorganise a march in Salisbury in protest against thetwo different teacher salary scales, one for whites andone for blacks, then in operation. He was stripped ofhis prefect status and compelled to hand back theschool tie he had received on becoming a prefect inthe first place. Nevertheless he completed his A levelsand went to the then University of Rhodesia. But aftera year, he left for England. He saw few opportunitiesfor real study in the isolated UDI country that wasbeing torn apart by internal politics and finally civilwar. He lived and studied in Liverpool for ten years,finally gaining his doctorate in pharmacology there.During his time in England, he served as chairman ofthe student Patriotic Front movement on Merseyside.

‘No, I wasn’t a Liverpool supporter. No, notEverton either. Actually, Notts Forest was my team,’ he admits with the same liveliness that he brings to everything he does.

On returning to Africa in 1981, he worked formore than 20 years at the University of Zimbabwe. He remembers, in 1985, being invited to UCT as avisiting lecturer and sponsored by a multinationalpharmaceutical company. They flew him businessclass. But during the South African leg of the flight, the steward placed a curtain directly in front of hisseat to protect other business class passengers (who were all white) from his presence.

He laughs at the memory. ‘But things have changednow, of course. Why did I come to South Africa?Maybe because I received only a thousand Zim dol-lars as my 20-year-long service award in 2001!’ Hesmiles in his lively way. ‘And why did I come specifi-cally to Limpopo? I could have gone to UCT or Wits,yes. But I wanted to be in the thick of African realitieswhile at the same time being at a real university.Make no mistake, that’s what the University of

Limpopo is: it’s a vibrant African institution with significant achievements and enormous potential.’

Then Nyazema had to hurry away to catch a plane to Blantyre in Malawi. He’s on the World HealthOrganisation Africa Region Technical Board on anti-retrovirals, and the board was having a meeting there.

Both Nyazema and Ogunbanjo are academicsfrom other parts of Africa who have found their wayonto the staff of the University of Limpopo. They andothers like them enrich the fabric of both campuses.They recognise the ‘gateway’ potential of the combined University. They can also see what is happening at the moment, and what has happened inthe past, that makes of their University a living exampleof the ‘gateway’ theme. Most of the stories that followwere suggested by these two Limpopo professors.

SETTING THE AFRICAN SCENE AT LIMPOPO UNIVERSITY

P A G E 1 0

SOUTHERN AFRICAN UNIVERSITIESJOIN FORCES

FORTY-SIX SADC UNIVERSITIES HAVE JOINEDFORCES TO ADVANCE THE DEVELOPMENT AGENDAOF AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION. A new association– the Southern African Regional UniversitiesAssociation (SARUA) – was launched at a function inCape Town earlier this year.

The publicity material at the time claimed it was thefirst association of its kind in Africa to do two cruciallyimportant things simultaneously. Both are in line withthe ideals of the SADC protocol and of Nepad ideals.• The first is to address the capacity and research

needs of SADC higher education institutions• The second is to address the social, cultural and

economic development priorities of the region.

SARUA is the product of an intensive research and consultation exercise that took longer than a year. Theexercise was driven by the South African UniversitiesVice-Chancellors Association (SAUVCA) after receivinga mandate at a meeting of the Vice-Chancellors of the46 SADC universities in October 2003. SAUVCA(which has now been superseded by HESA – HigherEducation South Africa – and incorporates the old technikons with the old universities under a singleumbrella) has now been given the task of managingthe new southern African organisation.

Professor Njabulo Ndebele, who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of the North (at Turfloop)before moving to the University of Cape Town, waselected first chairperson of SARUA.

The new organisation, under the direct leadershipof SAUVCA’s CEO Piyushi Kotecha, is already workingin four programme areas: information technology preparedness; institutional governance and leadership;science and technology; HIV/AIDS.

At the SARUA launch, chairman of the Nepad steering committee Wiseman Nkuhlu said that the time was ripe for this kind of regional collaboration.‘The strengthening of the structures within the AfricanUnion and the growing support for the continent fromthe G8 countries means that Africa has a window of

opportunity that we must not miss,’ he said. ‘Africanhigher education has a crucially important role in creating the capacity that is able to use the opportunitycurrently being presented.’

‘The development of leaders for trade and industry,government, and public sectors such as the judiciary,security, science and technology, education andhealth, is critical for Africa if it is to break out of itscycles of poverty, war and chronic under-development,’Kotecha said. ‘And regional collaborations betweenuniversities are the surest way of rising to this challenge.’

Njabulo Ndebele

h

P A G E 1 1

HE’LL BE RETIRING IN A FEW YEARS – HE TURNS 63THIS NOVEMBER – BUT THE IMPACT OF HIS WORKAT MEDUNSA WILL LIVE ON AND ON.

He’s Professor Robert Stegman, ophthalmologist,whose work on the surgical treatment of cataracts and glaucoma has saved thousands from blindness. ‘I came to Medunsa from Harvard University,’ herecalls. ‘I planned to stay for six months to do sometrials. I’ve stayed for 27 years.’

The trials were on a new substance that Stegmanwanted to use in cataract operations. The SouthAfrican Medicines Control Council had given its blessing. The substance was hyaluronic acid. Itworked like a charm when it came to simplifying the implanting of intraocular lenses to counteract thedegenerative effects of cataracts.

But let’s go slowly with all these facts. Let’s start at the beginning.

Stegman was born in Pretoria and did his firstdegree, as he says, at Tukkies. He then went to theUnited States, to Boston in fact, and in 1972 ‘gatecrashed’ into Harvard Medical School where he specialised in ophthalmology. It was during his six-year stint at this most prestigious of American universities that his attention was directed to cataractsand their treatment.

‘Intraocular lenses were just coming into their own,’Stegman explained. ‘It had been found during WorldWar II that Royal Air Force crews experienced nomajor rejection symptoms from pieces of shatteredcockpit windscreens that entered their eyes duringcombat or crashes. The windscreens were made ofPerspex (polymethylmethacrylate), and so medical scientists turned to this same material to manufactureintraocular lenses. But the first results were erratic,dogged with a lot of stability complications.

‘Our idea at Harvard was to use hyaluronic acid.This was a naturally occurring material that lends

Ophthalmology:CRASHING AEROPLANES AND HONG KONG RACEHORSES

substance or body to our tissues. It’s found in abundance in the combs of roosters: it’s what makesthe combs stand upright. The acid had been discovered by a German scientist in the late 1930s,but a use for it was not found until 30 years laterwhen it was tried, but with discouraging results, in a few retinal operations.

Professor Robert Stegman

P A G E 1 2

‘Then British and Hungarian biochemists put itthrough a refining process whereupon it found a usein veterinary surgery. Racehorses in Hong Kong werefound to be very prone to inflammation of the kneesbecause of the hard tracks encountered in that part ofthe world. The pounding resulted in a molecular breakdown of the shock absorber lubricants in theknee. Injecting hyaluronic acid into the inflamed kneesbrought about miraculous recoveries,’ Stegman said.

Some time later an orthopaedic surgeon in CapeTown tried it for the treatment of arthritis, but it didn’twork – perhaps because it was tried on rheumatoidrather than the degenerative type. At Harvard, mean-while, Stegman and his colleagues were experiencingsome disconcerting complications with intraocular lensimplants.

‘The Perspex material was highly inert on the surface,’ he explained, ‘but underneath an electromagnetic charge damaged the delicate cellsinside the cornea, causing significant damage andoften severe complications.’

So Stegman began to search for something thatwould prevent this. ‘A substance that was thick, clear,non-inflammatory and would retain the shape of theeye. I managed to get hold of six ampoules ofhyaluronic acid, and ran some animal studies. Itworked wonderfully.’

The next step was to find a place to conduct thehuman trials. The year was 1978. He had heard ofthe establishment of Medunsa two years before. Hegot the necessary permissions. So the human trialswere carried out at South Africa’s fledgling black medical school.

‘The results removed the last hurdle to unrestricteduse of intraocular lenses. Today, 200-million peoplehave them in their eyes – and Medunsa played a central role.’

Why had he not returned to Harvard?Stegman shrugged his shoulders, an unregretful

gesture. ‘The status attached to being a Harvard specialist was less important to me than being in theoperating theatre. That was my first love. The competition in America was fierce. The opportunitiesat Medunsa seemed limitless. I spoke to my Harvard

mentor, Professor David Miller. He agreed. He said:how can I help? The result of that offer was that hecame once a year to Medunsa as the external ophthalmology examiner. The examinations were set to Harvard standard. The motivation in this for my students and staff was absolutely fabulous in thoseearly years.’

There were other advantages in staying atMedunsa. During the 1980s, as Stegman described it,‘we were ringed around by civil wars’. Soldiers andcivilians were being blown up by landmines and mortars and bombs at alarming rates.

‘Modern weaponry seems to be designed on thepremise that disablement costs the enemy more thanoutright death,’ he said. ‘Consequently, the sub-continent was full of people with frightful eye injuries;and the military flew down these patients, 30 at atime, to the ophthalmology department at Medunsa.Our expertise grew accordingly.’

With this growth, came an international reputation.Medunsa was recognised as world leaders not only ineye trauma but also in congenital defects. People fromall over the world began to come to the ‘bush hospital’ attached to Medunsa to have their eyes seento. South Africans as well: the wife of a prominentAfrikaner politician came, as did the managing director of a giant insurance company. And with thisreputation came money: from the Department ofHealth, from the university itself, and from the privatesector, most notably from First National Bank.

‘Without this funding we couldn’t have done whatwe did,’ Stegman declared. ‘First National was fantastic. Their annual contribution kept us in the forefront of world ophthalmology.’

The generosity of funders certainly providedStegman with the opportunity to tackle glaucoma, thesecond largest cause of blindness in the world and amajor scourge in Africa. Glaucoma is characterisedby a gradual build up of pressure caused by an imbalance between the manufacture and excretion ofthe aqueous humour fluid that lubricates the eye.

Stegman knew that the current surgical treatmentwas unacceptable, with high failure and complicationrates. ‘I had been working for years with Grieshaber,

Ophthalmology:CRASHING AEROPLANES AND HONG KONG RACEHORSES

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the Swiss instrument makers. They became interestedin what I was trying to do. They made me the instrumentation to do it. The procedure was to go intoa small canal with an inside diameter as thick as ahuman hair. With the Swiss equipment we led theworld in this radically new direction.’

Stegman has been working on the glaucoma procedure for 16 years. The failure rate has beenreduced to 10% and the complication rate to virtuallyzero. At first, the medical fraternity said the procedurewas too complicated, but gradually it’s being accepted.Meanwhile, the work of perfecting the operation goeson – despite a dramatic fall in outside funding.

‘Many children are born with glaucoma,’ saysStegman. ‘Most end up in our blind schools. And mostof these are black. We’re operating as fast as we can.We’ve also had patients from the United States, fromSouth America and Greece. But the procedure shouldbe more widely practised in Southern Africa where theneed is so great.’

Stegman’s contribution is colossal – and it’s happened at Medunsa. At one point he was on call24 hours a day seven days a week for seven yearswithout a break. But, insists Stegman, he wouldn’thave wanted it any other way. Upstairs in his house isone of the biggest video libraries of eye surgery in theworld. He’s given over 300 lectures at internationalconferences around the world. He’s operated in countries in Europe and in America, but he keepsreturning to Medunsa. ‘Nowhere else in the worldcould I have done what I’ve done.’

When you ask why this was the case, Stegmananswers without hesitation. ‘There are three reasons.First, the positioning of Medunsa in Southern Africahas provided huge opportunities. Second, some of mytheatre sisters have worked for me for 20 years:they’re better than any other theatre staff I’ve encountered anywhere in the world. Third, the supportboth internally and externally, has been generous andregular, and it’s kept us going.’

For how long can these reasons remain valid?Stegman is not altogether optimistic. So we must addanother question: what will replace his distinguishedregime when he finally retires?

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Genetics:THE CASE OF THE MARGINALISEDCHICKENS

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tTO WATCH DR DAVID NORRIS WORKING WITH HISCHICKENS IS TO CATCH SIGHT OF A SCIENTIFICINTEREST BORDERING ON OBSESSION. He laughs a lot. He’s an easy man to be around. Yet his focus isvery firmly on his chickens.

‘All these are indigenous African chickens,’ hesays, indicating the scruffy scratching poultry in several pens on the School of Agriculture andEnvironmental Science’s experimental farm not farfrom the Turfloop campus of the University of Limpopo.‘Those on that side are naked-necked chickens, andthey’re found all over South Africa. These here – theblack and white speckled ones – are called Vendachickens.’

Nothing much to look at, these indigenous chickens.A few of the roosters have most of their tail feathersmissing, and the naked-necked bunch seems vaguelyreminiscent of vultures. Yet they have one hugestrength. They’re adapted to local conditions. In otherwords, they have developed physiological andanatomical systems that make any exotic breeds lookpositively puny.

‘The imported breeds are especially engineered forhigh egg or meat production,’ explains Norris, ‘but inSouthern African conditions they need high inputs –inoculations, special feeds, and so on – and mortalityrates are high. In other words, they’re expensive -much too expensive for local conditions. On the otherhand, the indigenous chickens represent a huge genetic resource. If we’re serious about poverty alleviation, let’s work with the local stock. That’s thethinking behind my research.’

Although an estimated 75% of South African chickenproduction is from local breeds, most scientists aremarginalising the indigenous strains. But not Norris,who’s a quantitative geneticist at Turfloop. The initialphase of his research was to do a ‘phenotypic charac-terisation’ study that examined such elements as size,growth rate, feeding requirements, egg size and output.

‘Because of the wholesale neglect of the past,’ saysNorris, ‘we know nothing of the respective breeds. Soit’s been important to carry out genetic characterisa-tion that begins to match the external characteristicswith the genetic types. It’s important for another

reason as well. Conservation. We are identifying and conserving African breeds that have been aroundfor a very long time but that have almost becomeextinct.’

Norris was born and grew up in Botswana, doinghis undergraduate studies at the university inGaberone. He then moved to the University ofReading (in the United Kingdom) and Michigan StateUniversity (USA) where he completed his master’s andPhD degrees respectively. His doctoral thesis dealtwith ‘the dominance effects in genetic variation’.Norris has also done special courses in quantitativegenetics in the United States (Michigan) and Canada,and he taught for a period of two years at Austin PeayState University in Tennessee. ‘I really loved the DeepSouth,’ he recalls. ‘It was so much warmer thanMichigan or Canada – much more suitable for someone from Southern Africa.’

Norris returned to Botswana in 2000 and made the move to Turfloop a year later. Asked why, hereplies: ‘I loved the opportunity to combine teachingand research that Turfloop offered.’

And the marginalised indigenous chickens all overSouthern Africa have benefited. Norris has establishedlinkages with the University of Venda, as well as tertiaryinstitutions in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Relationships are also in the pipeline with Swazilandand Botswana. ‘These links enable us to exchangeinformation and research findings on indigenous poultry.I have also made personal visits. I’m now looking forfunding to more formally establish the internationalinteractions to cover the whole of the SADC region.This will enrich our understanding of a significantregional resource and improve its utility in our fightagainst poverty and under-development.’

Next step in Norris’s indigenous chicken researchis a programme of selective breeding to improve theproductivity of the chickens without damaging theiradaptability to the environment. At the same time, agenuine African livestock resource will be conservedand used as a realistic alternative to much more vulnerable and expensive breeds imported fromAmerica and Europe.

Dr David Norris

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BIOTECHNOLOGY COLLABORATIONS

yYOU CAN’T AVOID THEAFRICAN CONNECTION ATTURFLOOP FOR LONG. Try theBiochemistry, Microbiology andBiotechnology Department in theSchool of Molecular and LifeSciences. The Programme haslinkages with the University ofZimbabwe and the NationalUniversity of Science andTechnology (NUST), also situatedin Bulawayo, and this special relationship is being extended toinvolve the universities of Nairobiand Zambia as well.

But that’s not all. Meet thehead of the Turfloop Department,Professor Ignatius Ncube. He’s aZimbabwean. And meet thecharming Associate Professor Emil Abotsi, born in Ghana, and a staff member at Turfloopsince 1991.

Ncube spoke about the academic links into Africa.They’re sponsored by theSouthern African RegionalCorporation in Biochemistry,Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (SARBIO), which inturn is funded by the InternationalProgramme of Chemical Sciencesbased in Sweden. SABRIO is co-ordinated by Professor Yogi Naikat NUST.

‘The link programme began inJuly 1995,’ said Ncube, ‘and itsinitial objectives were to fosteracademic co-operation betweenthe participating institutions. This comes in the form of studentand staff exchanges, research, capacity building and trainingworkshops.’

‘It’s brought the participatinguniversities closer together,’remarked Abotsi. ‘Students areexposed to much more than theirown campus and laboratory.We’ve been able to establishareas of research that are common to the participating institutions.

Examples of these are:• Biotechnology work for the

paper and pulp industry by theuniversities of Limpopo andZimbabwe. In a nutshell, theresearch is seeking to replacehazardous chemicals with suitable microbial enzymes foruse in the process of turningtimber into paper. Both universities are involved inresearch that will show the relative effectiveness of selected enzymes.

• A comprehensive examinationof indigenous medicinal plantsin the region, testing theireffectiveness against cancerand other human maladies – and the possible side effects – of the traditionally usedplants. This is done by

establishing via an extractionprocess the chemical compounds, and then by isolating the bio-active ingredients that actually perform the medicinal function.Collaboration between severaluniversities is enriching thisresearch process which, at theUniversity of Limpopo, is beingled by Professor LeseilaneMampuru.

Ncube was born in Bulawayo and did most of his studying atthe University of Zimbabwe inHarare. His doctorate was undertaken on a specialisedaspect of enzyme technology witha part of his research undertakenat Lund University in Sweden.

Abotsi studied first at theUniversity of Science andTechnology at Kumasi (Ghana).He then went to the University ofStrathclyde in Scotland where hewas awarded his doctorate in fermentation technology in 1981.He then returned to Ghana for sixyears before heading south – firstto Zambia and finally to Turfloop.

Sechene Gololo and Matlou Mogkotho with the piece of equipment called a rotavapour that is part of an extraction process for bio-active compounds

iIN THE POST-1994 CLIMATE,SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIESWERE BEING CHALLENGED ASNEVER BEFORE TO FOCUS THEIRATTENTION MUCH MORESPECIFICALLY INTO THE COM-MUNITIES LIVING IMMEDIATELYBEYOND THEIR CAMPUS GATES.Thanks to the long impact ofapartheid, some confusionseemed to exist in academic circles between the notion of‘pure’ scientific research and research related to actualAfrican realities.

As a result of such debates,and under the guidance ofProfessor Naftali Mollel who isacting Dean of the TurfloopFaculty of Sciences, Health andAgriculture, the then University ofthe North (now Limpopo) didsomething about the challenge.They established the Centre forRural Community Empowerment(CRCE) as the outreach arm of the School of Agricultural andEnvironmental Sciences.

That was in the year 2000.Two years later, French-bornThierry Lassalle arrived. He had accumulated extensive rural developmental experience inAfrica. His first 10 years werespent in Tanzania (from 1988to1998), working in the field ofrural market development. Hethen consulted more generally in

Tanzania, as well as in Rwanda,Kenya and Madagascar. And in2002 he came south to advise the CRCE’s newly appointed co-ordinator, Mr Ernest Letsoalo,who had just graduated from theUniversity of Limpopo with aMasters in Agricultural Extension.

‘I think the debate is no longerso much about pure versusAfrican research, not in agricultureat any rate, as about commercialversus small-scale agriculture,’Lassalle says. ‘It’s important thatwe legitimise the debate in theacademic arena. It’s cruciallyimportant, I believe, that a university like Limpopo should beengaged in the challenge of howto shape the future, and how tobring a better share for everyone.That’s certainly what the CRCE isdoing – working to legitimise thedebate.’

Lassalle points out that eightout of ten farmers throughout the world are community-based small-scale farmers serving theneeds of the majority of the developing world’s population.Their development is therefore of primary concern.

‘A lot of commercial farming ismoving in the direction of geneticmodification,’ Lassalle observes.‘But this is proving to be highlydetrimental to development.Everyone in agriculture

remembers the so-called greenrevolution of the 1970s. Hybridswere supposed to eradicatehunger, but the economics of seedproduction prevented that. Now,too, genetically modified seedsare very definitely the property of the seed companies. So muchso that in some cases the reproducibility of the seeds developing on the plants hasbeen removed by the biotechnologists. The idea is thatnew seeds have to be purchasedevery year.

‘Where does that leave thesmall-scale farmer who operateson or just above the subsistencelevel?’ he adds with real concern.

In response to these challenges, the CRCE has threemain areas of activity: actionresearch, documenting and networking.

Action research can bedefined as a combination ofactive assistance and post-graduate research in severaldefined pilot sites around theTurfloop campus. The first siteinvolves the Ga-Mothiba community where dry-land agriculture and the sustainablemanagement of natural resourcesare the main focuses. The secondsite involves the Ga-Mampa community that is situated withina traditional surface irrigation

Rural Community Empowerment:SMALL VERSUS BIG – AN IMPORTANT AGRICULTURAL DEBATE

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Ernest Letsoalo and Thierry Lassalle

Thierry Lassalle and Ga-Mothiba community members

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scheme where a diversification oflivelihoods (including dairy goatsand eco-tourism) is being developed. The third site is theMakgofe Trust Farm on whichemerging small-scale farmers areworking on redistributed land withbroiler chickens and vegetables.

The research is carried out by CRCE interns who are post-graduate students workingtowards their higher degrees.There are eight such interns for 2005.

Much of the documentationcomes from the interns. The CRCEhas a publishing programme thatmakes known the results of theresearch. The CRCE also produces regular video materialon aspects of its work. Thesevideos are used not only as anextension tool but are also airedat national and internationalforums. The CRCE is now widelyrecognised as an authority in this field, and the training of agricultural extension officers as executive producers of TV programmes regularly takes place.

Networking is of fundamentalimportance to the work of theCRCE. Relationships have beenbuilt up with many national andprovincial bodies, and the international links reach deep into Africa. In October last year,a memorandum of understandingwas signed between the universities of Limpopo andTanzania that focuses particularlyon animal science and agricultural economics and promotes joint activities and joint research between the twoinstitutions.

Other African linkages include:• One with Pelum (Participatory

Ecological Land-UseManagement), a civil societynetwork in East, Central andSouthern Africa promoting sustainable communities.

• Another one with Prolinnova,(Promoting Local Innovation) a network of professionalsfrom research, academic anddevelopment circles aimed at supporting genuine local innovations that improve rurallivelihoods.

• And another with the East andSouthern African Farmers’Forum, an organisation committed to enabling smallfarmers in the region ‘to speakas a united voice so that the issues, concerns and recommendations of farmersbecomes an integral part ofpolicies and practices atnational, regional and international levels’.

One of the CRCE interns is currently doing postgraduateresearch on the process of networking among small-scalefarmers. What functions do thenetworking processes fulfil? Howeffective are they in breakingthrough the restrictions of localisedgroups? Does horizontal communi-cation at the local or district levelhelp with the central issues of efficiency and sustainability?

‘Essentially,’ says Lassalle, ‘weare concerned with promotinginnovation in small-scale agriculturebecause it is this branch of farming– much more than huge endeav-

ours with inputs measured in mil-lions of rands – that describes the sustainable future of the developingworld. There are plenty of examples of large endeavoursruining the sustainability of theland and breaking the viability ofa region’s small farmers.Agriculture should be about thepeople on the land, and not onlyabout outputs measured in tons.’

So the future is going to bedominated by small-scale farmingconcepts like organic, human-based, ecologically sustainable,and so on. And these are the concepts that the CRCE is seekingto bring into the mainstream academic debates at theUniversity of Limpopo as itincreasingly focuses attention onthe communities it serves – andindeed on the basic rural realitiesof the entire SADC region.

SMALL VERSUS BIG – AN IMPORTANT AGRICULTURAL DEBATE

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PROFESSOR ULRICH MENNEN IS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE NOW. But he can still be found on somedays a week in his office as Head of the Departmentof Hand and Microsurgery on Medunsa campus.‘Doing hands,’ as he calls his speciality, is his rulingpassion. But that hasn’t kept him at the Universitywhich gained a world reputation thanks to hisresearch, expertise and efforts.

‘It’s teaching. It’s the students. Isn’t this the mostessential thing at an academic institution? And I mustconfess I love working with the postgrads. It’s veryoften highly rewarding. No, I no longer operate at theDr George Mukhari Hospital. It’s much too frustrating – all the delays. I do all my operating at a private hospital now.’

Yet Mennen’s contribution to Medunsa’s reputationhas been substantial. He was undergoing his specialisttraining in orthopaedics at Pretoria University when hewas headhunted to the fledgling new university ‘in thebush’ to the north of the city. He is one of the feworthopaedic surgeons in the country with a doctorate;and he’s published over 200 articles and books. He has lectured in more than 35 countries, introducedinnovative new surgical procedures and developed a number of new surgical implants.

In 1985 he started a fullyfledged Department ofHand and Microsurgery, the second such departmentin the world after Cuba. This department was independent from the Department of OrthopaedicSurgery. He was also acting head of the latter for twoyears, during which time the Orthopaedic Departmentwas subdivided into five specialist units.

‘In our heyday, during the late 1980s, we wereperforming 2 500 hand operations a year here at Ga-Rankuwa (Dr George Mukhari) Hospital. We developed a ‘hand team’ comprising doctors, nurses,physiotherapists, occupational therapists,

Orthopaedics: A PASSION FOR DOING HANDS

P A G E 2 1

a psychologist and even a local minister of religion.And the doctor wasn’t necessarily the boss. The concept worked spectacularly well. It was partly what made us world famous.’

Today, Mennen is the secretary-general of the prestigious International Federation of Societies forSurgery of the Hand. It’s a position he’s held for thepast two years, but he’s been on the Federation’sexecutive council for the past eight.

‘The aim of the Federation is to encourage countries to establish their own national societies.Then the Federation provides them with a home – andwith contact with others working in the same field.’

Mennen explained that the Federation comprisedno fewer than 35 specialist committees looking at suchsubjects as hand anatomy, congenital deformities, theskin, bones and joints of hands, tumours and infections, training centres and outreach. ‘This lastcommittee – the outreach one – we call our Hands-around-the-World Committee. Isn’t that nice?’ headded with a smile.

‘I have made it a special aim of my tenure as secretary-general to encourage much more outreachinto Africa. The potential is huge and attitudes inAfrica are generally so positive. Usually, when I comeback from conferences or workshops in Africa I feel sorefreshed. Let me tell you about some of my Africanexperiences.’

He detailed three.The first concerned an Ethiopian postgraduate

student – a man by the name of Dr Asrat Mengiste –who still invites Mennen to lead hand workshops inEast Africa. Mengiste himself now operates an airservice specialising in hand surgery to 11 countries.

The second occured at the end of one such workshop in Moshi on the first slopes of MountKilimanjaro, Mennen was presented with a gift and

with a sincere vote of thanks. In fact, the speaker toldthe 25 surgeons attending from various different countries that the workshop proved that Africans coulddo these things for themselves, without the help andadvice of Europeans or Americans. Eveyone hadclapped. ‘As a white South African, this was the greatest compliment I have ever received in my life,’he said.

And once Mennen had been invited to speak at theinaugural meeting of the Botswana OrthopaedicAssociation. He flew to Gaborone to find the venuepacked with people. He asked who they all werebecause they couldn’t all be surgeons. His hostslaughed. ‘No, no, not all surgeons,’ they explained,‘but nurses and GPs and physiotherapists and healthofficials and interested members of the public’ – andthey had come from all over that huge country to hearthe expert from South Africa – the expert fromMedunsa – speak.

As he related this, it seemed to be from a positioncharacterised by some vague sense of loss, or a wasting of opportunity perhaps.

‘The Medunsa heydays are over,’ was all he said.But later, he added: ‘The opportunity for Medunsa – orshould I now say the University of Limpopo – toassume a leadership role in Africa remains enormous.It’s a matter of grabbing the opportunity and harnessing the huge goodwill and enthusiasm thatexists on the continent. The University of Limpopo cancertainly become the ‘Medical Gateway’ to Africa.’

Professor Ulrich Mennen

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Immunisation: SECURING THE HEALTH OF FUTUREGENERATIONSWHAT’S THE BEST WAY TOSECURE THE HEALTH OF FUTUREGENERATIONS? There are plentyof answers to this vital question –many of them ecologically andpolitically fashionable – but oneof the most direct and obviousmust relate to the strengthening ofimmunisation programmes andservices.

That’s certainly what’s happeningin South Africa through theExpanded Programme ofImmunisation (EPI) that offers comprehensive protection for thenation’s children. (see the box onthe next page for details) againstall the major preventable dis-eases. It was adopted in SouthAfrica according to World HealthOrganisation recommendationsin 1995, with specific protectionagainst hepatitis B added duringthe same year, and againstHaemophilus influenzae type b in1999.

But there are challenges to thefull success of the EPI. Theseinclude a lack of public knowledgeof the programme, some complacency among health workersbecause the EPI has been so successful over the past decade,and also an under-utilisation ofimmunisation programmes in theface of competing health prioritieslike HIV/AIDS.

This was realised some timeago by academics at Medunsa

Campus. Professor AnwarHoosen, head of the Departmentof Microbiology, and Dr JeffreyMphahlele, head of theDepartment of Virology, in particular wanted to do somethingto support the government’s initiative. In the early 2000s,therefore, in partnership withProfessor Andre Meheus from theUniversity of Antwerp, fundingfrom the Flemish Inter-UniversityCouncil was secured and theOwn Initiative Project (OIP) atMedunsa campus launched..

The intention was generally tosupport the government’s EPIthrough research, curriculumdevelopment, epidemiologicalstudies on the impact of the EPI,and most importantly to establishat Medunsa campus an immunisation and vaccination

‘centre of excellence’ that wouldoutlive the funded life of the OIP.

The result was the establishmentof the South African Vaccinationand Immunisation Centre (SAVIC)which has as its specific objectives:• To promote synergies between

the Department of Health andhealth scientists at academicinstitutions.

• To disseminate to health officialsand workers, academics andscientists, as well as to the vaccine industry and the generalpublic, up-to-date SouthAfrican information about vaccine-preventable diseases.

• And to collaborate and shareresources with local, regionaland global partners.

Project manager for SAVIC andOIP, Rose Burnett, says that at the

Dr Jeffrey Mphahlele

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end of the life of OIP early in2007, a large meeting for representatives from the whole ofSouthern Africa is being plannedwith the express purpose ofextending SAVIC services into therest of the continent. ‘Already, ourwebsite carries reports andresearch results from other Africancountries,’ she adds.

The SAVIC website, which ispopulated and managed atMedunsa campus by Turfloop-trained medical scientistAvhashoni Tshatsinde, came on-stream a few months ago, andcarries high-quality information onpreventable diseases, on the EPIprogramme and on relatedresearch topics.

‘Our website,’ says Burnett,who holds a Masters in PublicHealth and lectures in epidemiology at the NationalSchool of Public Health (NSPH)on the Medunsa campus, ‘aims tobe the prime source of information for promoting awareness of vaccine-preventablediseases, supporting local andregional immunisation initiatives,and promoting the use and benefits of vaccines. It’s an invaluable tool. But that’s not allwe do.’

Research is currently beingundertaken in health systems management and policy, and abehavioural and social study is

examining the nature of resistanceto immunisation by some mothersand communities. On the curriculumdevelopment side, work hasalready been completed on apostgraduate diploma in the con-trol of infectious diseases, as wellas a Masters in Public Health thatwill concentrate on the same field.

As Burnett says: ‘We want toproduce health graduates at theUniversity of Limpopo and else-where who are up-to-date withwhat is being practised in the EPIclinics.’

SAVIC, which incorporates theOIP, has established several sub-committees to look at such special-interest areas as behavioural sciences (led by Dr KebogileMokwena, Acting Dean of theNSPH); health systems managementand policy (led by Enoch Peprah,Dean of Academic Affairs atNSPH); curriculum development(led by Baile Selaledi, a lecturerin nursing science); and epidemiol-ogy (led by Dr Mphahlele). Otherprominent Medunsa campus academics involved on the SAVICcommittees include ProfessorGboyega Ogunbanjo, DeputyDean (Research) in the powerfulFaculty of Medicine, ProfessorHoosen, and Professor AndriesGous from the School of Pharmacy.

To find out more about SAVIClog on to:http://www.savic.ac.za.

EXPANDED PROGRAMME OF IMMUNISATION (EPI) INSOUTH AFRICA

Here are the details of what everychild in the country is entitled to,and can receive free of charge atany public health clinic.

A t b i r t h :• BCG by intradermal injection• OPV by oral dropsA t 6 w e e k s :• OPV by oral drops• DTP + Hib by injection to left thigh• Hepatitis B by injection to right thighA t 1 0 w e e k s :• OPV by oral drops• DTP + Hib by injection to left thigh• Hepatitis B by injection to right thighA t 1 4 w e e k s :• OPV by oral drops• DTP + Hib by injection to left thigh• Hepatitis B by injection to right thighA t 9 m o n t h s :• Measles by injection to right thighA t 1 8 m o n t h s :• OPV by oral drops• DTP by injection to left arm• Measles by injection to right armA t f i v e y e a r s :• OPV by oral drops• DT by injection to left arm

BCG = Bacilli Calmete-Guerin (administered to immunise against tuberculosis)OPV = Oral polio vaccineDTP = Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis(whooping cough)DT = Diphtheria and tetanusHib = Haemophilus influenzae type b

Avhashoni Tshatsinde

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mMEDUNSA’S NATIONALSCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH(NSPH) IS DEFINITELY AHEAD OFTHE GAME. Established in 1998with an initial student intake of 42 postgraduate students, it’s produced more public healthgraduates since then than allother equitable institutions inSouth Africa put together.

Current student numbers are inthe region of 240, of which 142are Masters students and 11 areworking towards their doctorates.The balance is doing post-graduate diplomas.

‘A characteristic of our studentbody,’ says Dr KebogileMokwena, director of the NSPH,‘is that so many of them are fromother African countries.Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswanaand Namibia mostly, but alsosome from Zimbabwe and WestAfrica. Being a postgraduateschool means that most of our students are already in jobs.What makes our reach so broad,in spite of this and in spite of thegeographical spread of our students, is that we do distancelearning – but it’s distance learningwith a real difference.’

The difference is that the NSPHuses a sophisticated Canadianmodel of computer-based learning.It’s called EMBANET; it costs inthe region of R500 000 a year

(but is based on the number of student enrolments); ‘and it’sworth every penny – there’s nodoubt about that’, adds Mokwena.

She demonstrates the softwareon the computer on her desk. Themain menu comprises several special functions:• There’s an ordinary e-mail

facility where students cancommunicate with other students or with lecturers, andvice versa.

• There’s an NSPH library withonline access to journals,books, research documentsand other written material.

• There’s a notice board availableto all. On this is posted newsof public health events (academicmeetings, conferences, interna-tional gatherings), and alsomovements and availability oflecturers and other in-schoolinformation.

• Then there are the coursesthemselves. Three subheadingsin this function are: About theCourse which provides a summary of requirements,objectives and content; NewsFlash which contains relevantsubsidiary material that mightbecome available during thecourse, such as printed articlesand upcoming television programmes; and finally theCourse Material, which is

divided into units, each focusingon a theme and dealt with inseveral lessons. (The coursematerial has been developedand written at Medunsa.)

• All submissions of course workare made and assessed electronically via a devicecalled the ‘white board’ or virtual lecture room. Essaysand tests by individual students,as well as comments from theresponsible lecturer, are postedhere where access is given toother students in the group.This interactive process, whichfrequently includes group discussions via a customisedchat room, enriches the teaching/learning process.

• A pre-designed course schedule provides details ofcourse timelines and due datesfor assignments and gives anaccurate picture of the timegiven to complete each element of the course. In addition, details of how students are to be evaluatedand marked are provided.

‘As you can imagine, it’s a teaching-intensive method,’ saysMokwena. ‘But for this reason,dropout rates are low. Eventhough it’s not easy to replace thepotential for human interactionthat can be got in an actual

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lecture room, the great advantageof this method is that it is accessible to so many who wouldotherwise be denied the opportunity of postgraduate study.This broadened reach is of utmostimportance in Africa.’

The high level of students fromother countries can be attributedto initial funding from the pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, who provided bursaries across the sub-Saharanregion for the first five years ofthe NSPH’s life.

‘But even when the fundingcame to an end,’ explainsMokwena, ‘the foreign studentskept on coming. We had generateda reputation, and our only marketing has been word-of-mouth. It’s obvious there is a

need for what we offer.’Mokwena defined public

health as ‘a discipline that dealswith the health of groups andpopulations (rather than individuals) and that rests on afoundation of five core elements.These are social/behaviouralissues, health systems management,epidemiology, bio-statistics whichputs the numbers into epidemiology,environmental/occupationalhealth. Masters students major inone of these specialities.

NSPH students are drawn fromthe ranks of existing nurses, doctors, pharmacists, dentists,health inspectors, social workers,managers from health depart-ments or any other sphere wherea health focus is required.

‘Our students have included

the Swaziland Minister of Health,the Health MEC in Gauteng andother top government people, hospital managers and WorldHealth Organisation personnel,’says Mokwena. She adds withobvious pride that Medunsa’sNSPH is the first public healthschool in South Africa to producea doctoral graduate.

So successful has the NSPHbeen that the public health courseson the Turfloop campus of thenewly-merged University ofLimpopo have been absorbed intothe NSPH. It’s certainly one of theways that the merger is helping tomaintain the quality of tuition onboth campuses.

Dr Kebogile Mokwena, director of Medunsa’sNational School of Public Health, trained as a physiotherapist at Medunsa, gaining both her first and Master’s degrees at that university. She then spent two years in America where she obtained herdoctorate in Public Health from the University of South Carolina. She also completed a HigherEducation Diploma from Unisa. Now she’s passing on her knowledge to hundreds of postgraduate students from South Africa and other Southern African countries.

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fFEW TRAVELLERS TO THE FAMOUS FLOWERS OFNAMAQUALAND KNOW OF THE EXISTENCE OFTHE UNIQUE AGE-OLD TERMITE NESTS TO BEFOUND IN THIS BEAUTIFUL AREA OF SOUTHAFRICA.

According to scientists, some of the older of these inactive termite nests are between 25 000 and 30 000 years old. The termites, scientifically known as Microhodotermis viator, built amazingly huge nestswith an average height of one metre and a diameterof up to 30 metres. It is, therefore, quite apt that thesenests are known as heuweltjies (hillocks) among theresidents of Namaqualand. Millions of theseheuweltjies are found on the West Coast from thePiketberg area up to the border with Namibia.

Research shows that the Cape climate at the time of the building of the termite heuweltjies supported anopen savannah area, more suited to the prevalence of termites. The current semi-desert heuweltjie-studdedlandscape is, therefore, a telling example of the resultsof climate change.

But there’s a lot more to the heuweltjies than this.They’re easily recognisable by the unique vegetationto be found on them. This vegetation differs from thesurrounding vegetation and is the result of changedsoil and other characteristics that are connected withthe termite nests. As the plant species that grow on the heuweltjies are, according to livestock farmers inthe area, tasty to the livestock that is farmed inNamaqualand, heuweltjies form an important management component of the small-animal industry inthe area. Not only are the heuweltjies important to thelivestock farmers for management purposes, but thegrain farmers in the area are also affected by thechanging characteristics of the soil as a result of theprevalence of heuweltjies.

Little scientifically-founded knowledge onheuweltjies is available and even the recommended

carrying capacity of heuweltjie veld is still scientifically unfounded at present.

Research on Namaqualand’s heuweltjies now formspart of an interdisciplinary, international research project known as ‘BIOTA South’, funded primarily by the German government. This ambitious project comprises a research trajectory from the southern tipof South Africa to the border of Angola, with a branchoff to the lichen fields of the central Namib desert.Here, research is being done on a number of subjectsranging from lichens, soil fungi, plants and animals, toagricultural and socio-economic aspects of farmersand other communities in the trajectory.

Scientists from a number of universities and otherinstitutions in Germany, as well as universities andgovernment departments in South Africa and Namibia,are participating. Professor Dirk Wessels of theUniversity of Limpopo, an expert on the lichen fields of the Namib, is part of a specialist group of international scientists led by Professor Burkhard Büdelof the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany doingresearch on the biological soil crust of heuweltjies andother areas in the research trajectory.

Ecology: THE LEGACY OF ANTS

Professor Dirk Wessels

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Biological soil crusts comprise of micro-organismsthat attach to grains of soil in the surface layer to forma dense crust on the surface that in Namaqualand andNamibia could be as large as several hectares.Biological soil crusts also occur frequently in LimpopoProvince. Several species of cyano bacteria (commonly referred to as ‘black algae’ in swimmingpools), algae, bacteria, fungi, and crust-like earthbound lichen species form part of such biologicalsoil crusts. According to scientists, centimetre-deep layers of biological soil crusts may take more than100 years to develop

Cyano bacteria are ancient residents of our planetand the first species occurred 3.9 billion years ago.Lichens are commonly known as rock flowers orstonecrop [korsmosse] and consist of a fungus andspecies of algal that live together in a symbiotic andmutually beneficial relationship. More than a thousandlichen species that can live to ages of six thousandyears or more are found in South Africa and Namibia.

There can be no doubt that biological soil crustsare of international ecological importance. They prevent erosion, retard desiccation, contribute toorganic sound material and the large-scale fixation of atmospheric nitrogen.

‘During the course of the team’s work on the biological soil crusts,’ says Wessels from his Turfloopoffice, ‘we were surprised to discover that the chlorophyll concentration in some of the crusts is comparable to chlorophyll concentrations in theAtlantic Ocean.’ He explained that chlorophyll is thegreen colouring found in plant leaves that is essentialfor photosynthesis, a light-driven process by whichatmospheric carbon dioxide and water are transformedinto sugars that are used as building blocks by plants.

‘The absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide bybiological soil crusts are of specific importance in

today’s world of higher carbon dioxide levels in theatmosphere that cause the greenhouse effect. Thegreenhouse effect leads to higher temperatures that, inturn, can lead to large-scale climate change,’ Wesselspoints out.

The rate at which Namaqualand’s soil crusts bindatmospheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis isbeing researched by Professor Büdel and his group.Professor Wessels, on the other hand, is researchingthe ecology of biological soil crusts.

This is done by an automatic weather station thatmonitors the microclimate of individual heuweltjies.Variations in soil temperature, soil moisture, total rainfall, rainfall intensity, light intensity, air temperature, air moisture and fog precipitation aremeasured every half hour on a continuous basis. The information is gathered and stored electronically,using a custom-made data logger designed and builtby Douw Venter of the University of Limpopo. Eightmonths’ data were recently successfully downloadedfrom the data logger.

This unique information will enable scientists accurately to clarify the complex ecological role ofbiological soil crusts on heuweltjies. They’ll also beable to compile a management plan for heuweltjiecountry that will ensure the conservation of the biodiversity of the veld type as well as better use ofthe veld by stock farmers in the future.

So when next you marvel at the lavish springtimespectacle of the Namaqualand flowers, spare athought for the termites and what they started underneath those normally arid landscapes up to thirty thousand years ago.

• This article is closely based on a paper supplied byProfessor Dirk Wessels.

Ecology: THE LEGACY OF ANTSDouw Venter

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t

Visual and dramatic arts: A PERMANENT HOME AT LAST

THERE’S A PARTIALLY EMPTY OLD STOREROOM ON THE TURFLOOP CAMPUS THAT HAS BEEN EARMARKED FOR REINCARNATION AS A CULTURALCENTRE. Indeed, very recently, a small ceremony washeld on campus when the keys to the building werehanded over to Professor Salomi Louw, Director of theSchool of Languages and Communication Studies.

‘The project is now officially under way,’ says a jubilant Louw. ‘My first proposal for such a centrewas dated 1983. So I can hardly believe that we aremoving at last.’

The Cultural Centre will house a 220-seat theatrewith ample back-stage facilities and storage. The seating will be moveable which means the theatre canbe configured to suit the production – including anopportunity to present theatre-in-the-round. Leading offthe foyer will be space to house indigenous music andoral literature collections – as well as local LimpopoProvince art. In fact, there’ll be sculptures and paintings and other art objects everywhere.

‘We’ve been collecting for years,’ says Louw, indicating many beautiful pieces currently adorningher office and reception area. ‘Now we can give themall a permanent home and concentrate on enlargingour collection into something that people will travellong distances to come and see.’

Louw is now looking for sponsors who will buy individual pieces for a collection that aims fully to represent the rich artistic heritage existing in theprovince. ‘We are convinced that our fine art collection – not to mention the other activities and collections in the Cultural Centre – will attract not onlystudents and researchers but also significant numbersof tourists onto the Turfloop campus.

Although funding is still being sought for this exciting addition to university infrastructure, Louw isconfident that interested parties will not be in shortsupply. She points to a recent visit by a deputation

Professor Salomi Louw

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from the national Department of Arts and Culture,including representatives of the SA-Flemish Partnershipfor arts and culture education and training. In addition, the DAC officials were keen for theUniversity of Limpopo to embark on a comprehensivetraining programme for artists and cultural workers.

‘We have been informed,’ says Louw, ‘that if weembark on the training, funds are available for support of the materials needed. Hopefully this willtranslate into support for the establishment of ourCultural Centre.’

Preliminary plans have already been drawn up bya Polokwane firm of architects, and Louw lists the fullrange of objectives of the completed Cultural Centre:• To collect and exhibit indigenous arts and crafts,

and other cultural objects.

Visual and dramatic arts: A PERMANENT HOME AT LAST

• To provide rehearsal and performance space forplays, poetery readings, music and dance, and toundertake training in these fields.

• To house a permanent exhibition of creative writing, including oral literature.

• To make exhibition space (and short-term workingspace) available to Limpopo artists and crafters.

• To encourage tourism to Limpopo province.• To emphasise the role of the University in shaping

the history of the province by housing a permanentcollection of photographs, media productions andarchives.

Louw says that the cleaning of the building and its immediate surroundings will begin with immediateeffect.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITORLETTERS TO THE EDITOR

MISPLACED MAP

I must point out that in L i m p o p o L e a d e r 4 ,at the end of your article on Limpopo’s Growthand Development Strategy, the map reproducedon page 11 is not a map of Limpopo as stated,but only a tiny part of the province.

J o s e p h M a m a b o l oSenior Manager of Planning Co-ordinationOffice of the PremierLimpopo Province

We apologise for the vague and misleading caption attached to the photograph referred to above and reproduced here. In fact, what we are looking at is an infrared satellite image of the Olifants River irrigation schemementioned on page 26 of L I M P O P O L E A D E R 4 .

GET THAT USAGE RIGHT

The Tshivenda National Language Body was established through Act of Parliament with a mandate todevelop and promote Tshivenda as a language through development of literature and other writings. The body is concerned about the wrong usage of Tshivenda in your magazine (L i m p o p o L e a d e r 4 ).You have spelt Tsireledzani as Tsireledzani which is not acceptable in Tshivenda. In case you need assistance in Tshivenda you could contact Professor RN Madadzhe at Limpopo University or any member of Tshivenda National Language Body.

P r o f e s s o r M J M a f e l aDeputy Chairperson, TNLBUniversity of Venda for Science and TechnologyThohoyandou.

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