Limpopo Leader - University of Limpopo

Campus with a pastNEWS OF THE DAY FROM THEMEDUNSA ARCHIVESThe first students in the Faculty of Dentistry were registeredin 1981 and in the Faculty of Veterinary Science in 1982.Tree Planting ceremony 23 August 1976Medicos, the multi-disciplinary MedunsaInstitute for Community Services, wasinaugurated and officially opened in April1983. By then the community beingserviced by Ga-Rankuwa Hospital andMedunsa was developing a resistance to theunco-ordinated and haphazard teaching andresearch programmes that were being deliveredby the university. It was important to co-ordinateall the programmes and activities within thecommunities – hence the Medicos centre.In April 1982, theDepartment ofCommunity Healthof Medunsa, headedby Professor EricGlatthaar, hosteda highlysuccessfulinternationalconference for 900delegates on TB,100 yearsafter thetubercule bacilluswas discovered byRobert Koch.In January 1983, anew laboratory formicrosurgery, then arelatively new field,was established by theDepartment of Plastic &Reconstructive Surgeryat Medunsa. The ideaAt the end of 1983, the ‘One Day atMedunsa’ events were launched, tointroduce industrialists andleading policy makers to the realitiesof life at Medunsa. After the first visit,letters of congratulation poured in.Standards were much higher thanhad been anticipated. The result wasa dramatic increase in the number ofbursaries and donations granted tothe university by the private sector.‘One Day at Medunsa’ was tobecome a regular event. In fact, atthe 1984 event, a total of about R50000 was donated.was to help theteaching of consultantsand registrars todevelop the skill to operateon clinical materialat Ga-RankuwaHospital.In 1985Medunsa became partof the People-to-People InternationalProgramme, a USinitiative to enhanceinternationalunderstanding andfriendship througheducational, cultural andhumanitarian activitiesinvolving the exchangeof ideas and experiencesamong people of diversecultures.P A G E 8A joke of the day 25 years ago, however, shows that somethings don’t change: a nurse turns to an irate patient andsays, ‘Stop yelling at me; you’re not a doctor!’Also in 1984, Goldfields donatedR225 000 to Medunsa to establishthe Nutrition Rehabilitation Trust toaddress the problem of malnutritionamong black population groups insouthern Africa.The BiblicalGardens wereestablished in1984 near theresidences,featuring manyplants of theBible. The threefoldaims of thegardens were education,training,and recreation.Past staffmembers rememberthe gardens as aplace ofexcellence andbeauty.