MEDUNSA UPGRADE - University of Limpopo

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Profile: Geoffrey Letsoalo MEET THE GWAVA BUSTER decades of high-level experience, that has brought him back to his alma mater. His position? He’s the university’s new Executive Director of ICT. He refers with real affection to the University of Limpopo as his alma mater, as if the institution really did mean something to him when he was younger. Certainly, he graduated with a BSc in computer science in 1985, and followed this up with an Honours degree a year or two later. And he worked on campus as a junior lecturer for a while. But his association with Turfloop went much deeper than his chosen specialisation. ‘In June 1986,’ he recalled, ‘the soldiers came onto the campus during the State of Emergency. It was not long after, I had written a late examination and was walking home at night that I was arrested. I received my first beating at the hands of white soldiers and police. I felt the injustice. There were strikes on campus. Mankweng was burning. I was in a state of turmoil. Then I converted to my father’s religion. He had always been a Jehovah’s Witness. I found some peace. I read in Acts chapter 10 that God is not partial, but that in every nation those who feared him and were righteous would be accepted by him. Those words saved me from hating the white man.’ There were also academics at the university who had helped him through those difficult times. Two of them were white Afrikaners, but the one he singled out for special mention was Professor Hlengani Siweya, now the Executive Dean of Science and Agriculture, who then in the 1980s taught Letsoalo Mathematics I and II. ‘He was so supportive and positive, especially when I couldn’t study because of the incessant strikes.’ After his first stint at Turfloop was over, Letsoalo got a job in Cape Town, working in ICT for Shell, the big petroleum company. ‘In Cape Town, I shared a flat with a white man,’ he remarked with a smile. ‘At Shell, I began as a trainee network manager. I also worked for Hulett Packard and IBM. At the same time, I enrolled for further study at the University of Cape Town, and also did some lecturing.’ But then his father died. He went home to comfort his mother, and began working in Johannesburg to be closer to home. In Johannesburg, he held several senior ICT managerial positions. But where was home? P A G E 2 8 In response to the question, Letsoalo stood up behind his desk on the Turfloop campus and looked out of the window, craning his neck to see beyond the neighbouring buildings. ‘Out there,’ he replied. ‘I was born in those mountains, the Hwiti Mountains, you can see from almost everywhere on campus. You climb into them as you drive from here to Heunertsberg. My parents were both teachers, my four siblings are all graduates, but in my heart I’m still a rural boykie.’ The question seemed inevitable. What had first attracted this rural boykie to the complicated world of computers? The answer took Letsoalo back to a school trip in the late 1970s when he was about 12 years old. ‘We went to the Bantu Administration Office in Seshego. We looked at a big mainframe computer terminal. I was allowed to use the keyboard. I typed my name which came out as yellow letters on the computer terminal. I was able to instantly delete an error. I was absolutely fascinated. I wrote away asking for information on career options – and of course my father pushed me …’ So in a way, Letsoalo (now in his early forties) has come full circle. ‘I have spent twenty years – the first half of my career – in Cape Town and Johannesburg. In those two decades, I lectured for seven years, and I worked in ICT management for fifteen years. Now I’m back, ready to make my contribution to the University of Limpopo. ‘I’m recommending a strategic approach to ICT,’ he continued. ‘I’m pushing for a combination of following the latest trends and simultaneously of staying within the parameters of best practice. These are essential tenets to follow if we are to navigate successfully through the fast-changing technical terrain, and to ensure that our updates match the needs of the institution. But a primary requirement if this is to happen is that the ICT architecture must be kept simple, so whoever comes after me will be able to use it.’ Clearly, busting the GWAVA stranglehold is a logical step in that direction.
Profile: Regina Maphanga WHAT KEEPS HER BATTERIES CHARGED? hHER ACHIEVEMENT HAS got to do with electrolytic manganese dioxide, a substance of crucial importance to the storage batteries and alternative sources of energy that will drive the world’s future. She has recently been honoured with a major award for her work in this field. Her name is Rapela Regina Maphanga. She works at the Materials Modelling Centre (MMC) on the Turfloop campus of the University of Limpopo. She’s one of only a handful of black women in South Africa with a doctorate in Physics. And she’s hardly thirty years old. But what has kept her motivational batteries charged? Her remarkable story provides some answers to this inevitable question. Maphanga was born in the late 1970s in Ngwanallela, a small village in the GaMatlala district some 70 km west of the then Northern Transvaal town of Pietersburg (now Polokwane, capital of Limpopo province). ‘Although reasonably close to town,’ she explains, ‘it was very rural, a situation emphasised by the fact that reticulated electricity only started working there earlier this year (2010).’ Nevertheless, Ngwanallela had schools, both primary and secondary, and they had dedicated teachers. As early as grade five, an observant teacher Dr Regina Maphanga realised Maphanga’s potential. He arranged for her immediate promotion into grade seven. ‘His name was Mr Kgobe,’ Maphanga recalls. ‘He became a family friend. We’re still very close. But at the time when he promoted me, of course, I worked all that much harder so as not to disappoint him.’ Another result of the promotion was that she finished school earlier than most. She was 16 in matric, only turning 17 during her first year at university. Although her high school had no laboratories and of course no computers, Maphanga excelled at mathematics and the sciences. Her first year BSc subjects included P A G E 2 9
Page 1 and 2: LIMPOPO NUMBER 22 WINTER 2010 LIMPO
Page 3 and 4: CALLING ALL ALUMNI: GET IN THE NEWS
Page 5 and 6: IN THIS ISSUE UNIVERSITY cover pict
Page 7 and 8: efforts in this direction by lookin
Page 9 and 10: Changes in the university executive
Page 11 and 12: associate professor of Microbiology
Page 13 and 14: BOOTS enrolled for a Bachelor’s d
Page 15 and 16: Professor Monie Naidoo was to ensur
Page 17 and 18: Gerda Botha environmental health, w
Page 19 and 20: Medunsa upgrades ORAL HEALTH CENTRE
Page 21 and 22: Medunsa upgrades NEW SKILLS CENTRE
Page 23 and 24: heartbeat’, palpate her stomach,
Page 25 and 26: From top to bottom: Professor Dirk
Page 27 and 28: DVC Academic & Research Research Di
Page 29: Profile: Geoffrey Letsoalo MEET THE
Page 33 and 34: Profile: Dr Mhlangu FIRMING UP THE
Page 35: Secure Secure your your future futu

MEDUNSA UPGRADE - University of Limpopo

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