Brief Welcome… - University of KwaZulu-Natal

FACULACULTY OF SCIENCE AND AGRICULTUREPollution ResearchGroupTaking sanitationto thecommunityThe Pollution Research Group (PRG) at theUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) iscollaborating with two organisations in aneffort to provide sanitation services to communitieswhich do not have them.A relationship between the GermanbasedNGO, Bremen Overseas Research andDevelopment Association (BORDA) and theeThekwini Municipality’s Water and SanitationUnit began in 2004 at the EcoSan Conferencein Durban. On the one hand, the PRGhad been researching the anaerobic baffledreactor process for some years in partnershipwith the Water Research Commissionand eThekwini Water and Sanitation.BORDA, on the other hand, had been implementingtheir version of the decentralisedwastewater treatment system (DEWATS) formore than eight years.BORDA has more than 30 years of extensiveexperience in providing basic needsservices to the unserved. It strives to introducebest practices in the field of decentralisedwastewater management andsanitation. The NGO provided sanitation inIndonesia and India following the Tsunamias well as in Yogyakarta (Java) after a majorearthquake. BORDA developed prefabricatedDEWATS and toilet module solutionsmade from glass-fibre, ferro-cement orcargo container solutions.The role players in the project areUKZN’s Professor Chris Buckley, Mr ChrisBrouckaert, Mrs Katherine Foxon, Mr SudhirPillay and Mr Joseph Bwapwa from the PRGin the School of Chemical Engineering. MrAndreas Schmidt and Mr Andy Ulrich representBORDA. eThekwini Municipality Waterand Sanitation Unit is represented by Mr NeilMacleod, Mr Bill Pfaff, Mr Rob Dyer, MrSpeedy Moodliar and Mr Teddy Gounden.The Durban-Bremen partners are currentlyworking on two major sanitationprojects. One of these involves evaluating ananaerobic baffled reactor which is a containerisedsewage treatment system designedby BORDA for rapid deployment in disasterA grandmother in Pietermaritzburg celebrates the benefits of her newly-installedreticulated water supply and out-house.relief campaigns. The containerised systemwill benefit disaster victims because it isdesigned to produce methane gas (which isa form of energy) and requires no electricityand very little maintenance.“Adequate sanitation needs to be providedwithin 48 hours of a disaster occurringotherwise there will be a major outbreak ofinfectious diseases,” said Professor Buckley.The reactor is presently located behindthe Mechanical Engineering Building on theHoward College campus. The funding for theprototype containerised emergency unit hascome from the Free Hanseatic City ofBremen State Government.In the second project, BORDA andeThekwini Water and Sanitation are collaboratingin the process of designing and constructinga technical evaluation anaerobicbaffled reactor at a Permaculture Centre atNewlands-Mashu. It will treat the sewagefrom 80 surrounding houses. This system willbe monitored and evaluated by the PRG. Thetreated water will be evaluated for use in agricultureby a team of soil scientists from thePietermaritzburg campus consisting of ProfessorJeffrey Hughes, Dr Louis Titshall andPhD student Ms Irene Bame. The outcomesfrom the investigation will be used to guidethe type of sanitation systems that will beinstalled by eThekwini Municipality in theirnew housing initiatives.“When the PRG has finished doing thescientific evaluations at UKZN on the containerisedemergency anaerobic baffled reactorthey will move it to the PermacultureCentre in Newlands-Mashu for furthertests,” said Professor Buckley.Professor Buckley commended theBremen NGO for their contribution. “BORDAhas brought a major international dimensionto this partnership and a tremendous amountof practical experience to it which we as academicresearchers do not easily achieve.”This article is adapted from one that firstappeared in UKZN Online on 06/07/09.Further information may be obtainedabout the work of the Pollution ResearchGroup from Professor Chris Buckleyby email at buckley@ukzn.ac.za orby telephone on +27 (0)33 260 3131.Photograph by GuyStubbswww.ukzn.ac.za/ukznfUKZN Foundation7

Operation SmileSouth AfricaPuttingsmiles ontheirfacesThe head of Plastic and ReconstructiveSurgery at the Nelson R Mandela Schoolof Medicine recently returned from a missionto Kinshasa in the Democratic Republicof Congo (DRC) where he and a multidisciplinaryteam of 57 volunteers performedsurgery on 215 children and adultswith facial defects.Professor Madaree, Medical Director ofOperation Smile South Africa (OSSA), conductedcleft lip and cleft palate surgery atthe Clinique Ngaliema in May this year.The volunteers, from South Africa,Canada, the DRC, Holland, Italy, Malawi,Swaziland, the United Kingdom and theUnited States, worked for more than 10 daysto screen 555 children and adults and providefree surgical care to 215 individuals.OSSA is a non-profit body that conductsregular educational and medical missions inthe poverty-stricken rural areas of SouthAfrica as well as in southern and centralAfrica. It is part of a global alliance ofOperation Smile foundations and chaptersdedicated to providing free treatment tochildren and adults suffering from cleft lipsFurther information about Operation SmileSouth Africa (OSSA) may be obtained from theRegional Manager of OSSA, Natalie Miller,by email at nmiller@operationasmile.orgor telephone on +27 (0)21 481 9165.NELSON R MANDELA SCHOOL OL OF MEDICINEOperation Smile South Africa medical volunteers repair childhood facial deformities andaim to create smiles, change lives and heal humanity.and cleft palates. OSSA student associationsalso build awareness, raise funds and educatestudents about the values of commitment,leadership and volunteerism. OSSAtakes student educators and a studentsponsor on its medical missions. Studentslearn how they can impact the future whenthey help children in need.Cleft lips and cleft palates, the fourth mostcommon birth defect in the world, make it difficultfor children to perform simple actions.These children may have difficulty eating andeven kissing, while ear disease and dentalproblems occur frequently, as do problemswith proper speech development. Often childrenborn with cleft deformities are hiddenfrom society, living as outcasts even thoughtheir intelligence is not affected.A cleft lip is a hole in the lip that hascaused the lip to not form fully and a cleftpalate is a hole in the roof of the mouth.These two facial abnormalities are treatablebut for many children in poor areas of SouthAfrica and around the world, medical treatmentis not readily available. In as little as45 minutes, cleft lip surgery can change achild’s life forever.Professor Madaree, who is based atInkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital, says patientsare amazed when they look in the mirrorafter the operation often making it a mov-Photograph from http://southafrica.operationsmile.orging experience for the team and patientsalike. One child told him: “Now they can’tcall me Zombie anymore.”Professor Madaree, who has been withOperation Smile South Africa since itscreation in 2006, says the OSSA team hasperformed about 1000 operations and isplanning to take the mission to Mpumalangain August and either Madagascar or the DRCin November this year.This article is adapted from one that firstappeared in UKZN Online on 13/07/09.Professor Anil Madaree who has recentlyreturned from a mission to Kinshasa.8 UKZN Foundation www.ukzn.ac.za/ukznf

NELSON R MANDELA SCHOOL OL OF MEDICINEAfrican TraditionalMedicine LaboratoryBoost ost for research on indigenous medicineThe University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)has made a special commitment to promotingnon-Western or traditional medicine,alongside alopathic medicine, as an area ofacademic and scholarly pursuit at the NelsonR Mandela School of Medicine and in otherFaculties. The University was awarded a Chairof Indigenous Health Care Systems Researchby the Department of Science and Technology(DST) and the National Research Foundation(NRF) in 2007. The mission of the Chair is topromote African traditional medicine and ensurethat UKZN becomes a centre of researchexcellence for traditional health practitioners,indigenous knowledge holders and others withan interest in the scientific value of indigenousAfrican health care.In recognition of UKZN’s commitment topromoting the study of African and othertraditional forms of health care, the Ibn SinaInstitute of Tibb has recently pledged a totalof R7 million towards the constructionof the first African Traditional MedicineLaboratory and other areas of mutual interest.The Institute is a non-profit organisationfounded in 1997 to promote the training andpractice of ‘Unani-Tibb’ in South Africa.Unani-Tibb is a traditional system of medicinethat traces its origins back toHippocrates, Galen, and Ibn Sina. It is currentlypractised extensively in Arabian andIndian societies. The Institute has spearheadedthe recognition of Unani-Tibb inSouth Africa and has pioneered the developmentof an undergraduate degree andpostgraduate programme in Unani-Tibb atthe School of Natural Medicine at the Universityof the Western Cape. The partnershipbetween the Institute and theLaboratory for Traditional Medicine will pavethe way for similarly innovative work atUKZN.The initiative is led by UKZN’s ProfessorNceba Gqaleni, Chair in Indigenous HealthCare Systems and a leading scientist at theNelson R Mandela School of Medicine. Sincehis appointment in 2007, several internationaland national collaborative projects have beeninitiated, including a partnership with the InternationalCollaborating Centre on IndigenousPhytotherapies (TICIPS).TICIPS presents the first opportunity formedical doctors, scientists and traditionalhealers to co-operate internationally asequal partners in exploring indigenous Africanphytotherapies for AIDS, secondary infectionand immune modulation in a clinicaltrial. Together, scientists, medical practitionersand traditional healers will study themedicinal properties, safety and effectivenessof several African plants in use todayby traditional healers.This article has been adapted from one thatfirst appeared in UKZN Online on 21/04/09.Photograph by Guy StubbsFurther information may be obtainedabout the laboratory from the NationalResearch Foundation Chair of IndigenousHealth Care Systems ResearchProfessor Nceba Gqaleni by email atgqalenin@ukzn.ac.za orby telephone on +27 (0)31 260 4280.The African Traditional Medicine Laboratory will be a centre of research excellence fortraditional health practitioners, indigenous knowledge holders and others with aninterest in the scientific value of indigenous African health care.www.ukzn.ac.za/ukznfUKZN Foundation9

Recent Awards,Acknowledgements & EventsDEVELOPMENTS IN BRIEFNew residence for medical studentsAsod-turning ceremony for a new residencefor medical students was held onthe Pietermaritzburg campus on 8 June.Over the past decade the Nelson RMandela School of Medicine has developedclose ties with health services in this city,where fourth and fifth year students undertakespecialist training at three local hospitals.Currently, the University rents aresidence in Pietermaritzburg and studentstravel there every Sunday, returning to Durbanon Fridays. They have to keep their residencesin Durban, as they are only inPietermaritzburg for about six weeks.Once the new residence is complete,about 100 fourth year and 100 fifth year studentswill be placed in Pietermaritzburg foreither a full semester or a full academic year.A Learning Centre in the residence will provideaccess to the University LAN and MedicalLibrary resources electronically. Provisionhas been made for a seminar room wherelecturers can offer small group teaching sessions.This venue will be linked by teleconferencingto the Durban campus.The 220-room residence will cost R49million. Phase one, valued at R31 million, isearmarked for completion by November thisDean of the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine Professor Willem Sturm, KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Health Dr Sbongiseni Dhlomo, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head ofthe College of Health Sciences Professor Leana Uys at the sod-turning ceremony.year. The residence is to be funded by theDepartment of Education’s Clinical SkillsGrant. Architects Llew Bryan have designed10 contemporary and identical residentialunits that are interconnected. Each block has22 rooms spread over three floors, a seminarand IT room, laundry facilities, showers,basins and kitchen facilities.Sourced from UKZN Online 26/06/09(www.ukzn.ac.za/NewsArchive.aspx).Italian consul praises UKZN academicsAcademics from the Faculty of Humanitiesat the University of KwaZulu-Natal(UKZN) who attended the Italian RepublicDay celebrations in Durban recently werecommended for their efforts in promotingthe Italian language and culture.Dr Ugo Ciarlatani, Consul General of Italy (il Consolo d’Italia) (centre), with members ofUKZN’s academic and executive staff.The Italian Consul-General to SouthAfrica, Dr Ugo Ciarlatani, hosted the celebrationsat the Durban Country Club on2 June. Representing UZKN were DeputyVice-Chancellor and Head of the College ofHumanities, Professor Fikile Mazibuko; Deanof the Faculty of Humanities, ProfessorDonal McCracken; Ms Federica Bellusci,Italian Language Programme; and Head ofthe School of Music, Professor Emily Akuno.“The collaboration with the Universityof KwaZulu-Natal, through the Italianlanguage courses, is an important point ofreference in the promotion of Italian cultureand language,” said Dr Ciarlatani in hisaddress to the gathering.Course offerings by the School of Language,Linguistics and Literature – whichplans to introduce an honours programmein translation studies next year – includeItalian language courses and Italian translationstudies.Sourced from UKZN Online Volume 3Issue 11.10 UKZN Foundation www.ukzn.ac.za/ukznf

More than 200 graduates from theUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) andthe former Universities of Natal and Durban-Westville attended alumnus dinners held inPretoria and Johannesburg recently. The dinners,organised by the Alumni Affairs Office ofCorporate Relations, provided an opportunityfor alumni to meet old friends, network, shareexperiences of their university days and receiveinformation about their alma mater.Speakers at the functions were Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor DasarathDEVELOPMENTS IN BRIEFBack (l-r) Professor Dasarath Chetty, Mr Sandile Ngcobo, Mr Len Mzimela, and Mr FinnChristensen. Front (l-r) Mrs Mashudu Mariba, Professor Thanyani Mariba, Ms PortiaMtimunye, and Mr Moses Mtimunye.Alumni events on the HighveldUKZN leads African food od security meetingetingAteam comprising staff and postgraduatestudents from the African Centrefor Food Security (ACFS) at the Universityof KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) recently led discussionsat a food security meeting inZambia. Discussions centred around theComprehensive Africa Agricultural DevelopmentProgramme’s (CAADP) Frameworkfor African Food Security (FAFS) andtook place at the first Common Marketfor Eastern and Southern Africa(COMESA) Comprehensive Africa AgriculturalDevelopment Programme Food Securitymeeting in Livingstone.Chetty, who provided a comprehensiveoverview of the latest developments andachievements at the University, and Chairof Convocation, Mr Sandile Ngcobo, whoemphasised the importance of Convocation’sparticipation in the running of theUniversity.Alumni received information packswhich contained a range of University publicationsand information sheets.Sourced from UKZN Online - www.ukzn.ac.za/NewsArchive.aspx).The purpose of the meeting was topresent the CAADP Framework for AfricanFood Security and review how effectively theprogrammes of COMESA countries addressvulnerability to food security at the level ofthe household.Head of the ACFS, Professor SherylHendriks and Professor Hussein Shimelisfrom UKZN’s African Centre for Crop Improvement,led the UKZN team whichapplied a livelihoods-based policy dialoguemethodology developed through modulesand research at the Centre.Sourced from UKZN Online Volume 3 Issue 10.Recent Awards,Acknowledgements & EventsHonourablePassing:Dr Kees es van derPolLong-time supporter and dedicated friendof the University, Dr Cornelis (Kees) vander Pol, passed away peacefully on 2 January2009 at the age of 83. Born in Holland on26 July 1925, Dr van der Pol served on theUniversity of Natal Council for 15 years, fourof those as its Chair. He was also a Trusteeof the University of Natal Foundation, andlater the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)Foundation, for more than a decade, servingas its Vice-Chair for many years.Widely known as one of the most experiencedand talented business executivesin the sugar industry, he held the positionsof Managing Director of Huletts Corporation,Vice-Chairman of the Tongaat-HulettGroup, Chairman of Tongaat Hulett Sugar,Director of the Commercial Finance CompanyLimited, and non-executive Director ofthe Trust Bank. A former longstanding Chairof the South African Sugar Association afterhis retirement, Dr van der Pol was alwaysinterested in social affairs and the welfareof his fellow South Africans. A Trustee of theVictor Daitz Foundation, he was involved inthe Urban Foundation for many years andserved as both Director and Vice-Chairmanof its Natal Board. He was also a Director ofthe Small Business Development Corporation(SBDC), a Council member of theCouncil for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR), and a member of the Prime Minister’sScientific Advisory Board.Former Chair of Council and Vice-Chair ofthe UKZN Foundation’s Board of Trustees,Dr Kees van der Pol.Delegates at the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP)Pillar III meeting in Livingston, Zambia.Dr van der Pol held a Bachelor of Science(Engineering) and a PhD from the Universityof the Witwatersrand, as well as a Diplomain Sugar Technology from the University ofSt Lucia in Queensland. He is survived by hiswife, Fleur, his adult children, and theirfamilies.www.ukzn.ac.za/ukznfUKZN Foundation11

Partnership WithBusinessUKZN FOUNDATIONToyota keepsepsgoing rightTeaching and development opportunitiesfor students and learners have beenmade possible following a R1,165 milliondonation from Toyota SA.Secured through the University ofKwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Foundation, thedonation – from various sources within theToyota stable, including Toyota SA Motorsand the Albert Wessels Trust – is set to fundthe Rural Teacher Education Project (RTEP)directed from the Edgewood campus, as wellas student bursaries through the StudentFunding Centre.Senior representatives from Toyota SA,Ms Kitty Sokhela and Ms Zandi Tshabalala,presented the funds to the Foundation at aspecial event on 26 June. Over the years,generous support from Toyota SA hascreated bursary opportunities for studentsin science, mathematics, technology andlanguages.Welcoming guests at the cheque presentation,Deputy Director of the UZKNFoundation, Dr Connie Israel, and SeniorDevelopment Officer, Ms Nicola Latchiah,thanked Toyota for investing in teaching andlearning at UKZN. “We are pleased thatdespite the tough economic climate, Toyotahas kept us uppermost in mind as a priorityPart of the grant from Toyota SA will be allocated to the Rural Teacher Education Project(RTEP) which focuses on teacher development in parts of rural KwaZulu-Natal.institution for continued social investment.They have given our students at UKZN, thefuture leaders of our country, their continuedsupport. We value their contributionand look forward to a sustained relationshipwith Toyota SA,” said Ms Latchiah.Resources allocated to the StudentFunding Centre will provide internalbursaries to students who are financiallydisadvantaged and who have the potentialto succeed academically. Bursary managerfor the Centre, Ms Nonhlanhla Nkosi, saidthe funds helped to reduce the number ofstudents who are dependent on loans.RTEP will also benefit from the ToyotaSA sponsorship. Co-ordinator for the project,Dr Martin Combrinck, said that the fundingwould enable the placement of 20 third andfourth-year Education students in schools inrural Vulindlela where they will gain practicalteacher training, and assist with learnerdevelopment.Ms Sokhela, Corporate Social InvestmentManager for Toyota SA, said thecompany’s association with UKZN was aboutforging a long-standing relationship with theinstitution and not about monetary investment.“Our partnership with UKZN is highlyregarded at Toyota. The global economiccrisis makes funding a challenge and unfortunatelycertain sponsorships werecurtailed. We have continued to fund UKZN,though, because we value the partnership,”said Ms Sokhela.This article first appeared in UKZN Onlineon 13/07/09.Photograph by Guy StubbsFurther information aboutthe projects supported by Toyota atUKZN may be obtained from theInstitutional Advancement Manager at theUKZN Foundation, Nicola Latchiah,by email at latchiahn@ukzn.ac.za or bytelephone on +27 (0)31 260 3596.Dr Connie Israel, Deputy Director, UKZN Foundation (centre left) and Ms Nicola Latchiah,Institutional Advancement Manager (centre right) accept a sponsorship cheque in thepresence of other UKZN staff from Ms Kitty Sokhela, Toyota SA’s Corporate SocialInvestment Manager (centre).12 UKZN Foundation www.ukzn.ac.za/ukznf