Limpopo Leader - Spring 2005 - University of Limpopo

LIMPOPO 

NUMBER 5 

SPRING 2005 

LIMPOPO 

Ieader 

DISPATCHES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO 

THE CASE OF THE 

MARGINALISED CHICKENS 

Genetic research on Southern Africa’s 

tough indigenous poultry 

LIMPOPO: THE AFRICA 

CONNECTION 

Examining the linkages 

between a major university 

and the rest of the continent

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News flash: 

THE LATEST ON MEDUNSA 

AND THE MEDIA 

o 

ON 12 JUNE 2005 THE TV 

PROGRAMME CARTE BLANCHE 

PRESENTED AN ‘EXPOSE’ OF 

CERTAIN ALLEGED WRONG- 

DOINGS ON THE MEDUNSA 

CAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

LIMPOPO. In particular, attention 

was focused on irregularities in 

student entrance and exit 

procedures, as well as certain 

questionable managerial 

practices. 

It is important that this 

response of senior Limpopo 

University management is seen 

in the context of the merger, on 

1 January 2005, between the old 

University of the North and 

Medunsa. Such mergers are never 

easy. Nevertheless, the Limpopo 

merger has been characterised by 

serious attempts to harmonise the 

two institutions and to establish a 

common high standard both in the 

academic and ethical spheres. 

Details of the management 

response to the Carte Blanche 

accusations are as follows: 

• Entrance procedures. 

Carte Blanche detailed a 

specific case where the 

established entrance criteria 

appeared to have been 

ignored. What was not stated 

was that the University Council 

had decided to reverse its 

ruling to admit the student in 

question BEFORE the case was 

aired on Carte Blanche. The 

Council’s decision has 

subsequently been contested 

in court, which means that the 

matter is now sub judice. 

• Exit procedures. Carte 

Blanche exposed the case of 

a Medunsa medical student 

who had entered into an 

internship before passing 

certain examinations. 

University management points 

out that the student in question 

does not hold a medical 

degree – a situation that 

applies to all medical interns. 

• Management irregularities. 

The accusations relating to 

inappropriate fringe benefits 

and procurement irregularities 

are immediately admitted by 

University management. 

However, it is pointed out that 

soon after the merger had 

taken effect, and months 

BEFORE the Carte Blanche 

expose, the University had 

ordered an investigation by 

a firm of external auditors as 

part of efforts to harmonise 

the two campuses. This 

investigation had uncovered 

several irregularities that 

were reported to the national 

Minister of Education and 

immediately addressed. It is 

certainly true that some senior 

administrators at Medunsa 

were not flattered by the 

investigation. 

In the broader context of the 

merger and Limpopo University’s 

determination to couple two 

vibrant institutions to a single 

strategic vision, it is not surprising 

that heads could roll. Indeed, the 

University has recently parted 

company with two senior 

Medunsa staff members who 

appeared to be operating outside 

the new vision. At this stage, 

University management has no 

intention of elaborating on the 

details of their departure. 

The strategic vision of the new 

University of Limpopo is to build 

on the multiple strengths of both 

institutions to establish what two 

successive national Ministers 

of Education have called ‘the 

premier African university’. This 

institution will be wholly situated 

in Limpopo province. Medunsa’s 

health focus will be a huge 

contribution to the powerful 

new university, as will the many 

centres of excellence already 

existing on both campuses ... 

Read about plenty of these 

centres in this edition of 

Limpopo Leader. 

The letters page has been moved to page 32 for this edition of Limpopo Leader. 

P A G E 1

Limpopo Leader is 

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EDITOR: 

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pages front and back covers, 

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21, 22, 23, 27, 29, 30 

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pages 26, 28 

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P A G E 2 

EDITORIAL tTHE 

MERGER BETWEEN MEDUNSA AND THE OLD UNIVERSITY OF THE 

NORTH TO CREATE THE NEW UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO IS NEVER FAR 

FROM THE NEWS. Most readers will be aware of the publicity that 

recently shone an uncompromising light onto activities on the Medunsa 

campus. University leadership has dealt decisively and honestly with this 

situation, as can be seen from the statement published on page 1. 

Of more lasting import, the merger process is beginning to create an 

institution that will contain the very best available from both campuses. 

The current Minister of Education, as well as her predecessor, have both 

at various times referred to the new University of Limpopo as ‘a premier 

African university’ in the making. This is exactly what is happening. 

And what better place for such an activity to be taking place than in 

South Africa’s most northerly province – Limpopo – that takes pride in 

styling itself the ‘gateway to Africa’? 

This edition of Limpopo Leader takes pride therefore in looking 

in some detail at the Africa connection. An exciting picture emerges. 

The merged University is moving rapidly to fulfil the expectations of 

Minister 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. Through 

sophisticated online software the School is teaching postgraduate 

students from many SADC countries as well as plenty of South Africans 

as well. Or consider the networking efforts of Turfloop’s Centre for Rural 

Community Empowerment that has linked many of Limpopo’s small-scale 

farmers 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 a 

Cultural Centre, complete with theatre and collections of provincial 

fine art, literature both written and oral, and music. On the Medunsa 

campus, on the other hand, the work of the South African Vaccination 

and Immunisation Centre underscores the government’s Expanded 

Programme on Immunisation. Even these two widely differing centres 

have 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 in 

the 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. 

NEXT ISSUE 

IT’S A TRUISM TO SAY THAT ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS FACING 

SUSTAINABLE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHERN AFRICA IS 

THE HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC. The statistics are depressing, and ironically the most 

advanced country in the region – South Africa – is the worst affected. But it’s not 

all doom and gloom. For some better news emanating from the University of 

Limpopo – and don’t forget that this institution represents a merging of the old 

University of the North and the old Medical University of Southern Africa – read 

the Summer issue of Limpopo Leader due out in early December. Once 

again, you’ll see a powerful institution working hand in glove with the provincial 

government – and with an assortment of national bodies – to curb the country’s 

biggest ever public health threat.

IN THIS ISSUE 

cover picture: 

Genetic Research on indigenous Southern African poultry breeds takes off 

under the guiding hand of Dr David Norris of the School of Agriculture on 

the Turfloop campus of the University of Limpopo. See story on page 14 

page 1: 

The latest on Medunsa and the Media 

page 4: 

Limpopo: the Africa Connection. The province styles itself the ‘gateway to 

Africa’, and the University of the same name is working to become a 

‘premier African institution’ 

page 6: 

Setting the African Scene on both campuses of the University of Limpopo 

page 11: 

Crashing aeroplanes and Hong Kong Racehorses. An ophthalmologist has 

given Medunsa pride of international place in the treatment of cataracts and 

glaucoma 

page 14: 

The Case of the Marginalised Chickens. A geneticist takes a fresh took at 

indigenous Southern African poultry 

Page 16: 

Biotechnology Collaborations. Useful links exist between some Southern 

African universities and the Turfloop Department of Biochemistry, Molecular 

Biology & Biotechnology 

page 17: 

Small Versus Big: An Important Agricultural Debate. The case for the smallscale 

farmer as espoused by Turfloop’s Centre for Rural Community 

Empowerment 

page 20: 

A Passion for Doing Hands. The story of an orthopaedic surgeon who has 

placed Medunsa on the world map of hand surgery 

page 22: 

Securing the Health of Future Generations. Read how Medunsa’s SAVIC is 

helping the state with its Expanded Programme on Immunisation 

page 24: 

Online Postgraduate Studies for Africa. The National School of Public 

Health on the Medunsa campus is the most successful institution of its kind 

in the country 

page 27: 

The Legacy of Ants. ATurfloop professor is involved in studying the remains 

of 25 000 year old anthills in Namaqualand 

page 29: 

A Permanent Home at Last for Turfloop’s drama students and a growing 

collection of local art 

page 32: 

Letters to the Editor

INEA 

SSAU 

LIMPOPO: 

THE AFRICA CONNECTION 

WESTERN SAHARA 

MAURITANIA 

MALI 

P A G E 4 

ALGERIA 

• SENEGAL 

BURKINA FASO 

GUINEA 

• BENIN 

• SIERRA LEONE 

IVORY COAST 

• NIGERIA 

• GHANA 

• CAMEROON 

LIBERIA 

MOROCCO 

TOGO 

NIGER 

EQUATORIAL 

GUINEA 

TUNISIA 

GABON 

LIBYA 

CONGO 

CHAD 

• ANGOLA 

• NAMIBIA 

CENTRAL 

AFRICAN REP. 

• DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC 

OF CONGO (ZAIRE) 

• ZAMBIA 

• BOTSWANA 

• SOUTH AFRICA 

EGYPT 

SUDAN 

• MALAWI 

• ZIMBABWE • MADAGASCAR 

• LESOTHO 

• UGANDA 

• RWANDA 

• TANZANIA 

• MOZAMBIQUE 

• SWAZILAND 

ETHIOPIA 

• KENYA 

SOMALI REP. 

• MAURITIUS 

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 surprise 

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 

Limpopo Leader in this and 

previous issues.

iIN THE 1980S THERE WERE 

MACHINEGUNS MOUNTED 

UNDER BEIT BRIDGE AND LITTLE 

THOUGHT OF A CONTINENTAL 

CONTEXT FOR A SOUTH AFRICA 

UNDER SELF-IMPOSED SIEGE. 

Even in the1990s, as the borders 

were demilitarised and the 

country engaged with democracy 

for the first time, there was little 

appreciation of the rest of Africa 

– except as a worrying source of 

illegal immigrants. Only in the 

early 2000s did the sense of 

isolation crumble sufficiently for 

a clearer understanding to 

emerge of how close the rest of 

Africa actually was. 

Not surprisingly, the northern 

parts of the country were earliest 

influenced. From Limpopo 

province’s Mapungubwe hill, the 

slow meanderings of the Shashi 

River mark the dividing line 

between Botswana and 

Zimbabwe. Further east, in the far 

north of the Kruger National Park, 

one encounters a strong fence 

that separates Limpopo from 

Mozambique. The very proximity 

of these other countries, once 

a cause for concern and the 

presence of the military, now 

serves to free the imagination. 

Limpopo province is, by its own 

admission, the ‘gateway to Africa’. 

But what does this mean? It 

means an end to the old isolation. 

It suggests collaborations and 

partnerships, trade and regionalism, 

common challenges and common 

cause. But what is the reality? 

Are the suggestions beginning to 

come true? 

Without doubt. In the Premier’s 

Office in Polokwane there’s an 

important document doing the 

rounds. It’s the Draft Framework 

Towards Implementation of the 

New Partnership for Africa’s 

Development (Nepad) Through 

Limpopo, in the Context of the 

Region. It’s a cumbersome title, 

but the document has a straightforward 

intent: to prepare the 

ground for large cross-border 

projects linked to Limpopo’s 

Provincial Growth and 

Development Strategy, as well as 

to the overall development aims 

of Nepad. What are these large 

cross-border projects? Nothing 

concrete has been announced, but 

persistent whispers are emerging 

around a railway project, a water 

pipeline project, and even a harbour 

project in northern Mozambique 

that could have massive implications 

for agricultural downstreaming 

and exportation from the northern 

regions of Limpopo province. 

Not unexpectedly, the Draft 

Framework document makes 

frequent reference to ‘human 

skills’, to the idea that development 

is ‘about people’, to ‘human 

resource development’, and to 

‘science, research and technology’. 

So the big ideas in circulation in 

the Premier’s office will need to 

be matched by big ideas inside 

the University of Limpopo, an 

institution that increasingly sees 

for itself a regional role. 

But just how African is the 

University? In the pages that 

follow, a rich and surprising 

picture emerges. 

P A G E 5

SETTING THE AFRICAN SCENE 

AT LIMPOPO UNIVERSITY 

P A G E 6 

bBOTH CAMPUSES OF LIMPOPO UNIVERSITY LOOK 

UNMISTAKABLY AFRICAN. 

The Medunsa campus sits in the middle of the 

teeming peri-urban sprawl of what used to be a piece 

of the old Bophuthatswana Bantustan. Turfloop is built 

around rock protrusions as big as hills and covered 

with lavish Southern African vegetation. It too is 

surrounded by the noise and flamboyance of old 

homelands. There’s dust and blue skies on these 

campuses – and you could hardly be further, visually 

at 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 other 

African 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 them 

represent neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe, 

Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Namibia. Then 

there 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 of 

Mauritius. 

When Medunsa was established in 1976, it was 

named the Medical University of Southern (not South) 

Africa. Part of this was a reflection of the official 

apartheid desire for the emerging homelands to be 

taken seriously as independent countries. But even 

from those early days, foreign African medical 

students were present on campus, as foreign students 

found their way onto Turfloop. 

On the Turfloop campus there’s a University of 

Limpopo International Students Association. The 

chairperson of UNILISA (as it’s called) is a third-year 

BSc computer science student from Zimbabwe, Tapiwa 

Zvenyika. His deputy is Mozambican Sky Mkuti who’s

Sky Mkuti, Goldmarks Makamure, Tapiwa Zvenyika 

majoring in international politics. Third member of 

UNILISA’s executive is treasurer Goldmarks Makamure, 

a final-year psychology student from Masvingo in 

Zimbabwe. 

‘We found,’ they said, ‘that there were many issues 

where 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 with 

the integration of international students into the local 

scene, both socially and academically. The 

Association organises gatherings and social functions, 

as well as independence-day celebrations for each of 

the countries represented on campus. There are moves 

afoot to make contact with international students on 

the Medunsa campus soon. 

‘We’re proud to be here at Limpopo,’ the UNILISA 

executive said. ‘The university has good academic 

standards and infrastructure. Particularly the libraries 

and the computer equipment,’ they added. 

The various academic staffs on the two Limpopo 

campuses have been drawn from as many parts of the 

continent as the students. The best way of finding this 

out is to become a regular reader of Limpopo 

Leader, but listen to just two academics talking 

about themselves and the University’s many-sided 

African connections. 

At Medunsa, here’s Professor Gboyega 

Ogunbanjo, a smiling and friendly man from Nigeria 

(now a naturalised South African) who is currently the 

Deputy Dean (research) in the Faculty of Medicine. 

His speciality is Family Medicine, and he talks 

enthusiastically about initiatives in this field in the 

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Kenya. 

Four family physicians from the DRC have qualified 

with the Family Medicine master’s degree from 

Medunsa The Family Medicine training programme 

was initiated by the evangelical churches operating in 

the DRC with input from the Department of Family 

Medicine and Primary Health Care at Medunsa. 

The churches run the mission hospitals where most 

rural doctors work. This relationship hopefully will lead 

to the establishment of family medicine postgraduate 

courses being offered at the Kisangani and Kinshasa 

medical schools. The present relationship between 

Medunsa and the DRC evangelical churches is 

supported by funding from the Belgian government. 

Medunsa has also helped to establish a Department 

of Family Medicine at Moi University in the west 

Kenyan city of Eldoret. 

Ogunbanjo shakes his head when asked about 

joint research projects with these East and Central 

African institutions. ‘The main problem has been lack 

of resources for research in most parts of Africa. That’s 

why these linkages with Medunsa are so important. 

‘It’s a similar situation at Medunsa with its recent 

merger with the University of the North. I see real 

opportunities developing through the cross-pollination 

of ideas and projects between the various faculties 

and disciplines. Medunsa was the only medical 

university in the whole of Africa. We have suffered 

from this alienation and from the influence of other 

faculties. So the merger makes good sense – even 

though the distance between the two campuses 

presents a real challenge at this stage.’ 

Ogunbanjo was born in Lagos in 1958. He did his 

undergraduate training and internship at the University 

of Lagos, and then completed his one-year national 

service at Badagry General Hospital, a rural hospital 

near the Benin border. This experience opened his 

eyes to rural realities and needs. After four years, 

Nigeria launched their Technical Aid Programme to 

Africa and the Caribbean. Ogunbanjo jumped at the 

opportunity of working abroad, and very soon found 

himself doctoring in war-torn Mozambique. 

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

P A G E 7

SETTING THE AFRICAN SCENE AT LIMPOPO UNIVERSITY 

Professor Gboyega Ogunbanjo 

Professor Norman Nyazema 

P A G E 8 

tough. I remember that fresh milk was a real luxury. 

I had to learn Portuguese. There was lots of fighting 

One year, the Frelimo national conference was 

interrupted when Renamo fighters came into the city 

- we saw them fighting from the windows of our 

accommodation.’ 

Later, he went to Lesotho under his own steam, 

where he worked at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in 

Maseru. He had begun his postgraduate studies in 

family medicine and primary health care while still in 

Nigeria. After the interruption caused by working in 

Mozambique and Lesotho, he recommenced and 

completed his training with Medunsa. He found his 

way 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 can 

become a real force in the SADC region and in the 

rest of Africa.’ 

Norman Nyazema is Professor of Pharmacology 

on the Turfloop campus, and he tends to agree. ‘It’s 

happening, yes,’ he says, referring to the African 

focus emerging at the University of Limpopo. ‘It may 

not be absolutely discernible yet, or at the correct 

level, but its definitely taking shape. 

Nyazema recalls the meetings held in connection 

with the choice of a name for the merged institution. 

Limpopo was settled on because the Limpopo River 

runs through several Southern African countries. So the 

name – 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 pulling 

up the expertise and influence of the South African 

universities to the south of us and channelling it into 

the rest of the continent. In the same way, the realities 

from the north should be penetrating through us down 

into 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 of 

Zimbabwe in Harare. He was the director of 

postgraduate training there. Indeed, Nyazema was

orn in Harare (then Salisbury) in 1951. 

‘I always say that I has born in Southern Rhodesia, 

started school in the Federation of Rhodesia and 

Nyasaland, finished high school in UDI Rhodesia, 

went into exile for ten years, and then returned to 

work in Zimbabwe.’ 

Nyazema’s political career began in 1971 when, 

as a prefect at school, he was arrested for helping to 

organise a march in Salisbury in protest against the 

two different teacher salary scales, one for whites and 

one for blacks, then in operation. He was stripped of 

his prefect status and compelled to hand back the 

school tie he had received on becoming a prefect in 

the first place. Nevertheless he completed his A levels 

and went to the then University of Rhodesia. But after 

a year, he left for England. He saw few opportunities 

for real study in the isolated UDI country that was 

being torn apart by internal politics and finally civil 

war. 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 of 

the student Patriotic Front movement on Merseyside. 

‘No, I wasn’t a Liverpool supporter. No, not 

Everton 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 for 

more than 20 years at the University of Zimbabwe. 

He remembers, in 1985, being invited to UCT as a 

visiting lecturer and sponsored by a multinational 

pharmaceutical company. They flew him business 

class. But during the South African leg of the flight, 

the steward placed a curtain directly in front of his 

seat to protect other business class passengers 

(who were all white) from his presence. 

He laughs at the memory. ‘But things have changed 

now, of course. Why did I come to South Africa? 

Maybe because I received only a thousand Zim dollars 

as my 20-year-long service award in 2001!’ He 

smiles in his lively way. ‘And why did I come specifically 

to Limpopo? I could have gone to UCT or Wits, 

yes. But I wanted to be in the thick of African realities 

while 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 Health 

Organisation Africa Region Technical Board on antiretrovirals, 

and the board was having a meeting there. 

Both Nyazema and Ogunbanjo are academics 

from other parts of Africa who have found their way 

onto the staff of the University of Limpopo. They and 

others 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 in 

the past, that makes of their University a living example 

of the ‘gateway’ theme. Most of the stories that follow 

were suggested by these two Limpopo professors. 

P A G E 9

SETTING THE AFRICAN SCENE AT LIMPOPO UNIVERSITY 

SOUTHERN AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES 

JOIN FORCES 

FORTY-SIX SADC UNIVERSITIES HAVE JOINED 

FORCES TO ADVANCE THE DEVELOPMENT AGENDA 

OF AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION. A new association 

– the Southern African Regional Universities 

Association (SARUA) – was launched at a function in 

Cape Town earlier this year. 

The publicity material at the time claimed it was the 

first association of its kind in Africa to do two crucially 

important things simultaneously. Both are in line with 

the 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. The 

exercise was driven by the South African Universities 

Vice-Chancellors Association (SAUVCA) after receiving 

a mandate at a meeting of the Vice-Chancellors of the 

46 SADC universities in October 2003. SAUVCA 

(which has now been superseded by HESA – Higher 

Education South Africa – and incorporates the old 

technikons with the old universities under a single 

umbrella) has now been given the task of managing 

the 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, was 

elected first chairperson of SARUA. 

The new organisation, under the direct leadership 

of SAUVCA’s CEO Piyushi Kotecha, is already working 

in 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 African 

Union and the growing support for the continent from 

the G8 countries means that Africa has a window of 

P A G E 1 0 

Njabulo Ndebele 

opportunity that we must not miss,’ he said. ‘African 

higher education has a crucially important role in 

creating the capacity that is able to use the opportunity 

currently being presented.’ 

‘The development of leaders for trade and industry, 

government, and public sectors such as the judiciary, 

security, science and technology, education and 

health, is critical for Africa if it is to break out of its 

cycles of poverty, war and chronic under-development,’ 

Kotecha said. ‘And regional collaborations between 

universities are the surest way of rising to this 

challenge.’

Ophthalmology: 

CRASHING AEROPLANES AND 

HONG KONG RACEHORSES 

hHE’LL BE RETIRING IN A FEW YEARS – HE TURNS 63 

THIS NOVEMBER – BUT THE IMPACT OF HIS WORK 

AT 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,’ he 

recalls. ‘I planned to stay for six months to do some 

trials. I’ve stayed for 27 years.’ 

The trials were on a new substance that Stegman 

wanted to use in cataract operations. The South 

African Medicines Control Council had given its 

blessing. The substance was hyaluronic acid. It 

worked like a charm when it came to simplifying 

the implanting of intraocular lenses to counteract the 

degenerative 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 first 

degree, as he says, at Tukkies. He then went to the 

United States, to Boston in fact, and in 1972 ‘gate 

crashed’ 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 cataracts 

and their treatment. 

‘Intraocular lenses were just coming into their own,’ 

Stegman explained. ‘It had been found during World 

War II that Royal Air Force crews experienced no 

major rejection symptoms from pieces of shattered 

cockpit windscreens that entered their eyes during 

combat or crashes. The windscreens were made of 

Perspex (polymethylmethacrylate), and so medical 

scientists turned to this same material to manufacture 

intraocular 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 

substance or body to our tissues. It’s found in 

abundance in the combs of roosters: it’s what makes 

the 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 later 

when it was tried, but with discouraging results, in 

a few retinal operations. 

Professor Robert Stegman 

P A G E 1 1

Ophthalmology: 

CRASHING AEROPLANES AND HONG KONG RACEHORSES 

‘Then British and Hungarian biochemists put it 

through a refining process whereupon it found a use 

in veterinary surgery. Racehorses in Hong Kong were 

found to be very prone to inflammation of the knees 

because of the hard tracks encountered in that part of 

the world. The pounding resulted in a molecular 

breakdown of the shock absorber lubricants in the 

knee. Injecting hyaluronic acid into the inflamed knees 

brought about miraculous recoveries,’ Stegman said. 

Some time later an orthopaedic surgeon in Cape 

Town tried it for the treatment of arthritis, but it didn’t 

work – perhaps because it was tried on rheumatoid 

rather than the degenerative type. At Harvard, meanwhile, 

Stegman and his colleagues were experiencing 

some disconcerting complications with intraocular lens 

implants. 

‘The Perspex material was highly inert on the 

surface,’ he explained, ‘but underneath an 

electromagnetic charge damaged the delicate cells 

inside the cornea, causing significant damage and 

often severe complications.’ 

So Stegman began to search for something that 

would prevent this. ‘A substance that was thick, clear, 

non-inflammatory and would retain the shape of the 

eye. I managed to get hold of six ampoules of 

hyaluronic acid, and ran some animal studies. It 

worked wonderfully.’ 

The next step was to find a place to conduct the 

human trials. The year was 1978. He had heard of 

the establishment of Medunsa two years before. He 

got the necessary permissions. So the human trials 

were carried out at South Africa’s fledgling black 

medical school. 

‘The results removed the last hurdle to unrestricted 

use of intraocular lenses. Today, 200-million people 

have 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 the 

operating theatre. That was my first love. The 

competition in America was fierce. The opportunities 

at Medunsa seemed limitless. I spoke to my Harvard 

P A G E 1 2 

mentor, Professor David Miller. He agreed. He said: 

how can I help? The result of that offer was that he 

came 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 those 

early years.’ 

There were other advantages in staying at 

Medunsa. During the 1980s, as Stegman described it, 

‘we were ringed around by civil wars’. Soldiers and 

civilians were being blown up by landmines and 

mortars and bombs at alarming rates. 

‘Modern weaponry seems to be designed on the 

premise that disablement costs the enemy more than 

outright death,’ he said. ‘Consequently, the subcontinent 

was full of people with frightful eye injuries; 

and the military flew down these patients, 30 at a 

time, 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 in 

eye trauma but also in congenital defects. People from 

all over the world began to come to the ‘bush 

hospital’ attached to Medunsa to have their eyes seen 

to. South Africans as well: the wife of a prominent 

Afrikaner politician came, as did the managing 

director of a giant insurance company. And with this 

reputation came money: from the Department of 

Health, from the university itself, and from the private 

sector, most notably from First National Bank. 

‘Without this funding we couldn’t have done what 

we did,’ Stegman declared. ‘First National was 

fantastic. Their annual contribution kept us in the 

forefront of world ophthalmology.’ 

The generosity of funders certainly provided 

Stegman with the opportunity to tackle glaucoma, the 

second largest cause of blindness in the world and a 

major scourge in Africa. Glaucoma is characterised 

by a gradual build up of pressure caused by an 

imbalance between the manufacture and excretion of 

the aqueous humour fluid that lubricates the eye. 

Stegman knew that the current surgical treatment 

was unacceptable, with high failure and complication 

rates. ‘I had been working for years with Grieshaber,

the Swiss instrument makers. They became interested 

in what I was trying to do. They made me the 

instrumentation to do it. The procedure was to go into 

a small canal with an inside diameter as thick as a 

human hair. With the Swiss equipment we led the 

world in this radically new direction.’ 

Stegman has been working on the glaucoma 

procedure for 16 years. The failure rate has been 

reduced to 10% and the complication rate to virtually 

zero. At first, the medical fraternity said the procedure 

was too complicated, but gradually it’s being accepted. 

Meanwhile, the work of perfecting the operation goes 

on – despite a dramatic fall in outside funding. 

‘Many children are born with glaucoma,’ says 

Stegman. ‘Most end up in our blind schools. And most 

of these are black. We’re operating as fast as we can. 

We’ve also had patients from the United States, from 

South America and Greece. But the procedure should 

be more widely practised in Southern Africa where the 

need is so great.’ 

Stegman’s contribution is colossal – and it’s 

happened at Medunsa. At one point he was on call 

24 hours a day seven days a week for seven years 

without a break. But, insists Stegman, he wouldn’t 

have wanted it any other way. Upstairs in his house is 

one of the biggest video libraries of eye surgery in the 

world. He’s given over 300 lectures at international 

conferences around the world. He’s operated in 

countries in Europe and in America, but he keeps 

returning to Medunsa. ‘Nowhere else in the world 

could I have done what I’ve done.’ 

When you ask why this was the case, Stegman 

answers without hesitation. ‘There are three reasons. 

First, the positioning of Medunsa in Southern Africa 

has provided huge opportunities. Second, some of my 

theatre 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 support 

both internally and externally, has been generous and 

regular, and it’s kept us going.’ 

For how long can these reasons remain valid? 

Stegman is not altogether optimistic. So we must add 

another question: what will replace his distinguished 

regime when he finally retires? 

P A G E 1 3

Genetics: 

THE CASE OF THE MARGINALISED 

CHICKENS 

P A G E 1 4

Dr David Norris 

tTO WATCH DR DAVID NORRIS WORKING WITH HIS 

CHICKENS IS TO CATCH SIGHT OF A SCIENTIFIC 

INTEREST BORDERING ON OBSESSION. He laughs 

a lot. He’s an easy man to be around. Yet his focus is 

very firmly on his chickens. 

‘All these are indigenous African chickens,’ he 

says, indicating the scruffy scratching poultry in 

several pens on the School of Agriculture and 

Environmental Science’s experimental farm not far 

from the Turfloop campus of the University of Limpopo. 

‘Those on that side are naked-necked chickens, and 

they’re found all over South Africa. These here – the 

black and white speckled ones – are called Venda 

chickens.’ 

Nothing much to look at, these indigenous chickens. 

A few of the roosters have most of their tail feathers 

missing, and the naked-necked bunch seems vaguely 

reminiscent of vultures. Yet they have one huge 

strength. They’re adapted to local conditions. In other 

words, they have developed physiological and 

anatomical systems that make any exotic breeds look 

positively puny. 

‘The imported breeds are especially engineered for 

high egg or meat production,’ explains Norris, ‘but in 

Southern African conditions they need high inputs – 

inoculations, special feeds, and so on – and mortality 

rates are high. In other words, they’re expensive - 

much too expensive for local conditions. On the other 

hand, the indigenous chickens represent a huge 

genetic resource. If we’re serious about poverty 

alleviation, let’s work with the local stock. That’s the 

thinking behind my research.’ 

Although an estimated 75% of South African chicken 

production is from local breeds, most scientists are 

marginalising the indigenous strains. But not Norris, 

who’s a quantitative geneticist at Turfloop. The initial 

phase of his research was to do a ‘phenotypic characterisation’ 

study that examined such elements as size, 

growth rate, feeding requirements, egg size and output. 

‘Because of the wholesale neglect of the past,’ says 

Norris, ‘we know nothing of the respective breeds. So 

it’s been important to carry out genetic characterisation 

that begins to match the external characteristics 

with the genetic types. It’s important for another 

reason as well. Conservation. We are identifying 

and conserving African breeds that have been around 

for a very long time but that have almost become 

extinct.’ 

Norris was born and grew up in Botswana, doing 

his undergraduate studies at the university in 

Gaberone. He then moved to the University of 

Reading (in the United Kingdom) and Michigan State 

University (USA) where he completed his master’s and 

PhD degrees respectively. His doctoral thesis dealt 

with ‘the dominance effects in genetic variation’. 

Norris has also done special courses in quantitative 

genetics in the United States (Michigan) and Canada, 

and he taught for a period of two years at Austin Peay 

State University in Tennessee. ‘I really loved the Deep 

South,’ he recalls. ‘It was so much warmer than 

Michigan 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, he 

replies: ‘I loved the opportunity to combine teaching 

and research that Turfloop offered.’ 

And the marginalised indigenous chickens all over 

Southern Africa have benefited. Norris has established 

linkages with the University of Venda, as well as tertiary 

institutions in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

Relationships are also in the pipeline with Swaziland 

and Botswana. ‘These links enable us to exchange 

information and research findings on indigenous poultry. 

I have also made personal visits. I’m now looking for 

funding to more formally establish the international 

interactions to cover the whole of the SADC region. 

This will enrich our understanding of a significant 

regional resource and improve its utility in our fight 

against poverty and under-development.’ 

Next step in Norris’s indigenous chicken research 

is a programme of selective breeding to improve the 

productivity of the chickens without damaging their 

adaptability to the environment. At the same time, a 

genuine African livestock resource will be conserved 

and used as a realistic alternative to much more 

vulnerable and expensive breeds imported from 

America and Europe. 

P A G E 1 5

BIOTECHNOLOGY COLLABORATIONS 

yYOU CAN’T AVOID THE 

AFRICAN CONNECTION AT 

TURFLOOP FOR LONG. Try the 

Biochemistry, Microbiology and 

Biotechnology Department in the 

School of Molecular and Life 

Sciences. The Programme has 

linkages with the University of 

Zimbabwe and the National 

University of Science and 

Technology (NUST), also situated 

in Bulawayo, and this special 

relationship is being extended to 

involve the universities of Nairobi 

and Zambia as well. 

But that’s not all. Meet the 

head of the Turfloop Department, 

Professor Ignatius Ncube. He’s a 

Zimbabwean. And meet the 

charming Associate Professor 

Emil Abotsi, born in Ghana, 

and a staff member at Turfloop 

since 1991. 

Ncube spoke about the 

academic links into Africa. 

They’re sponsored by the 

Southern African Regional 

Corporation in Biochemistry, 

Molecular Biology and 

Biotechnology (SARBIO), which in 

turn is funded by the International 

Programme of Chemical Sciences 

based in Sweden. SABRIO is coordinated 

by Professor Yogi Naik 

at NUST. 

‘The link programme began in 

July 1995,’ said Ncube, ‘and its 

initial objectives were to foster 

academic co-operation between 

the participating institutions. 

This comes in the form of student 

and staff exchanges, research, 

capacity building and training 

workshops.’ 

P A G E 1 6 

‘It’s brought the participating 

universities closer together,’ 

remarked Abotsi. ‘Students are 

exposed to much more than their 

own campus and laboratory. 

We’ve been able to establish 

areas of research that are 

common to the participating 

institutions. 

Examples of these are: 

• Biotechnology work for the 

paper and pulp industry by the 

universities of Limpopo and 

Zimbabwe. In a nutshell, the 

research is seeking to replace 

hazardous chemicals with 

suitable microbial enzymes for 

use in the process of turning 

timber into paper. Both 

universities are involved in 

research that will show the 

relative effectiveness of 

selected enzymes. 

• A comprehensive examination 

of indigenous medicinal plants 

in the region, testing their 

effectiveness against cancer 

and other human maladies 

– and the possible side effects 

– of the traditionally used 

plants. This is done by 

establishing via an extraction 

process the chemical 

compounds, and then by 

isolating the bio-active 

ingredients that actually 

perform the medicinal function. 

Collaboration between several 

universities is enriching this 

research process which, at the 

University of Limpopo, is being 

led by Professor Leseilane 

Mampuru. 

Ncube was born in Bulawayo 

and did most of his studying at 

the University of Zimbabwe in 

Harare. His doctorate was 

undertaken on a specialised 

aspect of enzyme technology with 

a part of his research undertaken 

at Lund University in Sweden. 

Abotsi studied first at the 

University of Science and 

Technology at Kumasi (Ghana). 

He then went to the University of 

Strathclyde in Scotland where he 

was awarded his doctorate in 

fermentation technology in 1981. 

He then returned to Ghana for six 

years before heading south – first 

to 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

Rural Community Empowerment: 

SMALL VERSUS BIG – 

AN IMPORTANT AGRICULTURAL DEBATE 

iIN THE POST-1994 CLIMATE, 

SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES 

WERE BEING CHALLENGED AS 

NEVER BEFORE TO FOCUS THEIR 

ATTENTION MUCH MORE 

SPECIFICALLY INTO THE COM- 

MUNITIES LIVING IMMEDIATELY 

BEYOND THEIR CAMPUS GATES. 

Thanks to the long impact of 

apartheid, some confusion 

seemed to exist in academic 

circles between the notion of 

‘pure’ scientific research 

and research related to actual 

African realities. 

As a result of such debates, 

and under the guidance of 

Professor Naftali Mollel who is 

acting Dean of the Turfloop 

Faculty of Sciences, Health and 

Agriculture, the then University of 

the North (now Limpopo) did 

something about the challenge. 

They established the Centre for 

Rural Community Empowerment 

(CRCE) as the outreach arm of 

the School of Agricultural and 

Environmental Sciences. 

That was in the year 2000. 

Two years later, French-born 

Thierry Lassalle arrived. He 

had accumulated extensive rural 

developmental experience in 

Africa. His first 10 years were 

spent in Tanzania (from 1988 

to1998), working in the field of 

rural market development. He 

then consulted more generally in 

Tanzania, as well as in Rwanda, 

Kenya and Madagascar. And in 

2002 he came south to advise 

the CRCE’s newly appointed 

co-ordinator, Mr Ernest Letsoalo, 

who had just graduated from the 

University of Limpopo with a 

Masters in Agricultural Extension. 

‘I think the debate is no longer 

so much about pure versus 

African research, not in agriculture 

at any rate, as about commercial 

versus small-scale agriculture,’ 

Lassalle says. ‘It’s important that 

we legitimise the debate in the 

academic arena. It’s crucially 

important, I believe, that a 

university like Limpopo should be 

engaged in the challenge of how 

to shape the future, and how to 

bring a better share for everyone. 

That’s certainly what the CRCE is 

doing – working to legitimise the 

debate.’ 

Lassalle points out that eight 

out of ten farmers throughout 

the world are community-based 

small-scale farmers serving the 

needs of the majority of the 

developing world’s population. 

Their development is therefore 

of primary concern. 

‘A lot of commercial farming is 

moving in the direction of genetic 

modification,’ Lassalle observes. 

‘But this is proving to be highly 

detrimental to development. 

Everyone in agriculture 

remembers the so-called green 

revolution of the 1970s. Hybrids 

were supposed to eradicate 

hunger, but the economics of seed 

production prevented that. Now, 

too, genetically modified seeds 

are very definitely the property 

of the seed companies. So much 

so that in some cases the 

reproducibility of the seeds 

developing on the plants has 

been removed by the 

biotechnologists. The idea is that 

new seeds have to be purchased 

every year. 

‘Where does that leave the 

small-scale farmer who operates 

on or just above the subsistence 

level?’ he adds with real concern. 

In response to these 

challenges, the CRCE has three 

main areas of activity: action 

research, documenting and 

networking. 

Action research can be 

defined as a combination of 

active assistance and postgraduate 

research in several 

defined pilot sites around the 

Turfloop campus. The first site 

involves the Ga-Mothiba 

community where dry-land 

agriculture and the sustainable 

management of natural resources 

are the main focuses. The second 

site involves the Ga-Mampa 

community that is situated within 

a traditional surface irrigation 

P A G E 1 7

Ernest Letsoalo and Thierry Lassalle 

Thierry Lassalle and Ga-Mothiba community members 

P A G E 1 8

SMALL VERSUS BIG – AN IMPORTANT AGRICULTURAL DEBATE 

scheme where a diversification of 

livelihoods (including dairy goats 

and eco-tourism) is being 

developed. The third site is the 

Makgofe Trust Farm on which 

emerging small-scale farmers are 

working on redistributed land with 

broiler chickens and vegetables. 

The research is carried out 

by CRCE interns who are postgraduate 

students working 

towards their higher degrees. 

There are eight such interns for 2005. 

Much of the documentation 

comes from the interns. The CRCE 

has a publishing programme that 

makes known the results of the 

research. The CRCE also 

produces regular video material 

on aspects of its work. These 

videos are used not only as an 

extension tool but are also aired 

at national and international 

forums. The CRCE is now widely 

recognised 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 fundamental 

importance to the work of the 

CRCE. Relationships have been 

built up with many national and 

provincial bodies, and the 

international links reach deep 

into Africa. In October last year, 

a memorandum of understanding 

was signed between the 

universities of Limpopo and 

Tanzania that focuses particularly 

on animal science and 

agricultural economics and 

promotes joint activities and 

joint research between the two 

institutions. 

Other African linkages include: 

• One with Pelum (Participatory 

Ecological Land-Use 

Management), a civil society 

network in East, Central and 

Southern Africa promoting 

sustainable communities. 

• Another one with Prolinnova, 

(Promoting Local Innovation) 

a network of professionals 

from research, academic and 

development circles aimed 

at supporting genuine local 

innovations that improve rural 

livelihoods. 

• And another with the East and 

Southern African Farmers’ 

Forum, an organisation 

committed to enabling small 

farmers in the region ‘to speak 

as a united voice so that 

the issues, concerns and 

recommendations of farmers 

becomes an integral part of 

policies and practices at 

national, regional and 

international levels’. 

One of the CRCE interns is 

currently doing postgraduate 

research on the process of 

networking among small-scale 

farmers. What functions do the 

networking processes fulfil? How 

effective are they in breaking 

through the restrictions of localised 

groups? Does horizontal communication 

at the local or district level 

help with the central issues of 

efficiency and sustainability? 

‘Essentially,’ says Lassalle, ‘we 

are concerned with promoting 

innovation in small-scale agriculture 

because it is this branch of farming 

– much more than huge endeav- 

ours with inputs measured in millions 

of rands – that describes the 

sustainable future of the developing 

world. There are plenty of 

examples of large endeavours 

ruining the sustainability of the 

land and breaking the viability of 

a region’s small farmers. 

Agriculture should be about the 

people on the land, and not only 

about outputs measured in tons.’ 

So the future is going to be 

dominated by small-scale farming 

concepts like organic, humanbased, 

ecologically sustainable, 

and so on. And these are the 

concepts that the CRCE is seeking 

to bring into the mainstream 

academic debates at the 

University of Limpopo as it 

increasingly focuses attention on 

the communities it serves – and 

indeed on the basic rural realities 

of the entire SADC region. 

P A G E 1 9

Orthopaedics: 

A PASSION FOR DOING HANDS 

P A G E 2 0 

pPROFESSOR ULRICH MENNEN IS IN PRIVATE 

PRACTICE NOW. But he can still be found on some 

days a week in his office as Head of the Department 

of Hand and Microsurgery on Medunsa campus. 

‘Doing hands,’ as he calls his speciality, is his ruling 

passion. But that hasn’t kept him at the University 

which gained a world reputation thanks to his 

research, expertise and efforts. 

‘It’s teaching. It’s the students. Isn’t this the most 

essential thing at an academic institution? And I must 

confess I love working with the postgrads. It’s very 

often highly rewarding. No, I no longer operate at the 

Dr 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 reputation 

has been substantial. He was undergoing his specialist 

training in orthopaedics at Pretoria University when he 

was headhunted to the fledgling new university ‘in the 

bush’ to the north of the city. He is one of the few 

orthopaedic surgeons in the country with a doctorate; 

and he’s published over 200 articles and books. 

He has lectured in more than 35 countries, introduced 

innovative new surgical procedures and developed 

a number of new surgical implants. 

In 1985 he started a fullyfledged Department of 

Hand and Microsurgery, the second such department 

in the world after Cuba. This department was 

independent from the Department of Orthopaedic 

Surgery. He was also acting head of the latter for two 

years, during which time the Orthopaedic Department 

was subdivided into five specialist units. 

‘In our heyday, during the late 1980s, we were 

performing 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,

Professor Ulrich Mennen 

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 for 

Surgery of the Hand. It’s a position he’s held for the 

past two years, but he’s been on the Federation’s 

executive 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 – and 

with contact with others working in the same field.’ 

Mennen explained that the Federation comprised 

no fewer than 35 specialist committees looking at such 

subjects as hand anatomy, congenital deformities, the 

skin, bones and joints of hands, tumours and 

infections, training centres and outreach. ‘This last 

committee – the outreach one – we call our Handsaround-the-World 

Committee. Isn’t that nice?’ he 

added with a smile. 

‘I have made it a special aim of my tenure as 

secretary-general to encourage much more outreach 

into Africa. The potential is huge and attitudes in 

Africa are generally so positive. Usually, when I come 

back from conferences or workshops in Africa I feel so 

refreshed. Let me tell you about some of my African 

experiences.’ 

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 in 

East Africa. Mengiste himself now operates an air 

service specialising in hand surgery to 11 countries. 

The second occured at the end of one such 

workshop in Moshi on the first slopes of Mount 

Kilimanjaro, Mennen was presented with a gift and 

with a sincere vote of thanks. In fact, the speaker told 

the 25 surgeons attending from various different 

countries that the workshop proved that Africans could 

do these things for themselves, without the help and 

advice of Europeans or Americans. Eveyone had 

clapped. ‘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 the 

inaugural meeting of the Botswana Orthopaedic 

Association. He flew to Gaborone to find the venue 

packed with people. He asked who they all were 

because they couldn’t all be surgeons. His hosts 

laughed. ‘No, no, not all surgeons,’ they explained, 

‘but nurses and GPs and physiotherapists and health 

officials and interested members of the public’ – and 

they had come from all over that huge country to hear 

the expert from South Africa – the expert from 

Medunsa – speak. 

As he related this, it seemed to be from a position 

characterised 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 – or 

should I now say the University of Limpopo – to 

assume a leadership role in Africa remains enormous. 

It’s a matter of grabbing the opportunity and 

harnessing the huge goodwill and enthusiasm that 

exists on the continent. The University of Limpopo can 

certainly become the ‘Medical Gateway’ to Africa.’ 

P A G E 2 1

Immunisation: 

SECURING THE HEALTH OF FUTURE 

GENERATIONS 

w 

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO 

SECURE THE HEALTH OF FUTURE 

GENERATIONS? There are plenty 

of answers to this vital question – 

many of them ecologically and 

politically fashionable – but one 

of the most direct and obvious 

must relate to the strengthening of 

immunisation programmes and 

services. 

That’s certainly what’s happening 

in South Africa through the 

Expanded Programme of 

Immunisation (EPI) that offers 

comprehensive protection for the 

nation’s children. (see the box on 

the next page for details) against 

all the major preventable diseases. 

It was adopted in South 

Africa according to World Health 

Organisation recommendations 

in 1995, with specific protection 

against hepatitis B added during 

the same year, and against 

Haemophilus influenzae type b in 

1999. 

But there are challenges to the 

full success of the EPI. These 

include a lack of public knowledge 

of the programme, some 

complacency among health workers 

because the EPI has been so 

successful over the past decade, 

and also an under-utilisation of 

immunisation programmes in the 

face of competing health priorities 

like HIV/AIDS. 

This was realised some time 

ago by academics at Medunsa 

P A G E 2 2 

Dr Jeffrey Mphahlele 

Campus. Professor Anwar 

Hoosen, head of the Department 

of Microbiology, and Dr Jeffrey 

Mphahlele, head of the 

Department of Virology, in 

particular wanted to do something 

to support the government’s 

initiative. In the early 2000s, 

therefore, in partnership with 

Professor Andre Meheus from the 

University of Antwerp, funding 

from the Flemish Inter-University 

Council was secured and the 

Own Initiative Project (OIP) at 

Medunsa campus launched.. 

The intention was generally to 

support the government’s EPI 

through research, curriculum 

development, epidemiological 

studies on the impact of the EPI, 

and most importantly to establish 

at Medunsa campus an 

immunisation and vaccination 

‘centre of excellence’ that would 

outlive the funded life of the OIP. 

The result was the establishment 

of the South African Vaccination 

and Immunisation Centre (SAVIC) 

which has as its specific objectives: 

• To promote synergies between 

the Department of Health and 

health scientists at academic 

institutions. 

• To disseminate to health officials 

and workers, academics and 

scientists, as well as to the 

vaccine industry and the general 

public, up-to-date South 

African information about 

vaccine-preventable diseases. 

• And to collaborate and share 

resources with local, regional 

and global partners. 

Project manager for SAVIC and 

OIP, Rose Burnett, says that at the

end of the life of OIP early in 

2007, a large meeting for 

representatives from the whole of 

Southern Africa is being planned 

with the express purpose of 

extending SAVIC services into the 

rest of the continent. ‘Already, our 

website carries reports and 

research results from other African 

countries,’ she adds. 

The SAVIC website, which is 

populated and managed at 

Medunsa campus by Turflooptrained 

medical scientist 

Avhashoni Tshatsinde, came 

on-stream a few months ago, and 

carries high-quality information on 

preventable diseases, on the EPI 

programme and on related 

research topics. 

‘Our website,’ says Burnett, 

who holds a Masters in Public 

Health and lectures in 

epidemiology at the National 

School of Public Health (NSPH) 

on the Medunsa campus, ‘aims to 

be the prime source of 

information for promoting 

awareness of vaccine-preventable 

diseases, supporting local and 

regional immunisation initiatives, 

and promoting the use and 

benefits of vaccines. It’s an 

invaluable tool. But that’s not all 

we do.’ 

Research is currently being 

undertaken in health systems 

management and policy, and a 

behavioural and social study is 

Avhashoni Tshatsinde 

examining the nature of resistance 

to immunisation by some mothers 

and communities. On the curriculum 

development side, work has 

already been completed on a 

postgraduate diploma in the control 

of infectious diseases, as well 

as a Masters in Public Health that 

will concentrate on the same field. 

As Burnett says: ‘We want to 

produce health graduates at the 

University of Limpopo and elsewhere 

who are up-to-date with 

what is being practised in the EPI 

clinics.’ 

SAVIC, which incorporates the 

OIP, has established several subcommittees 

to look at such specialinterest 

areas as behavioural 

sciences (led by Dr Kebogile 

Mokwena, Acting Dean of the 

NSPH); health systems management 

and policy (led by Enoch Peprah, 

Dean of Academic Affairs at 

NSPH); curriculum development 

(led by Baile Selaledi, a lecturer 

in nursing science); and epidemiology 

(led by Dr Mphahlele). Other 

prominent Medunsa campus 

academics involved on the SAVIC 

committees include Professor 

Gboyega Ogunbanjo, Deputy 

Dean (Research) in the powerful 

Faculty of Medicine, Professor 

Hoosen, and Professor Andries 

Gous from the School of Pharmacy. 

To find out more about SAVIC 

log on to: 

http://www.savic.ac.za. 

EXPANDED 

PROGRAMME OF 

IMMUNISATION (EPI) IN 

SOUTH AFRICA 

Here are the details of what every 

child in the country is entitled to, 

and can receive free of charge at 

any public health clinic. 

At birth: 

• BCG by intradermal injection 

• OPV by oral drops 

At 6 weeks: 


• DTP + Hib by injection to left thigh 

• Hepatitis B by injection to right thigh 

At 10 weeks: 




At 14 weeks: 




At 9 months: 

• Measles by injection to right thigh 

At 18 months: 


• DTP by injection to left arm 

• Measles by injection to right arm 

At five years: 


• DT by injection to left arm 

BCG = Bacilli Calmete-Guerin 

(administered to immunise against tuberculosis) 

OPV = Oral polio vaccine 

DTP = Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis 

(whooping cough) 

DT = Diphtheria and tetanus 

Hib = Haemophilus influenzae type b 

P A G E 2 3

Public Health: 

ONLINE POSTGRADUATE STUDIES 

FOR AFRICA 

mMEDUNSA’S NATIONAL 

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH 

(NSPH) IS DEFINITELY AHEAD OF 

THE GAME. Established in 1998 

with an initial student intake of 

42 postgraduate students, it’s 

produced more public health 

graduates since then than all 

other equitable institutions in 

South Africa put together. 

Current student numbers are in 

the region of 240, of which 142 

are Masters students and 11 are 

working towards their doctorates. 

The balance is doing postgraduate 

diplomas. 

‘A characteristic of our student 

body,’ says Dr Kebogile 

Mokwena, director of the NSPH, 

‘is that so many of them are from 

other African countries. 

Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana 

and Namibia mostly, but also 

some from Zimbabwe and West 

Africa. Being a postgraduate 

school means that most of our 

students are already in jobs. 

What makes our reach so broad, 

in spite of this and in spite of the 

geographical spread of our 

students, is that we do distance 

learning – but it’s distance learning 

with a real difference.’ 

The difference is that the NSPH 

uses a sophisticated Canadian 

model of computer-based learning. 

It’s called EMBANET; it costs in 

the region of R500 000 a year 

P A G E 2 4 

(but is based on the number of 

student enrolments); ‘and it’s 

worth every penny – there’s no 

doubt about that’, adds Mokwena. 

She demonstrates the software 

on the computer on her desk. The 

main menu comprises several 

special functions: 

• There’s an ordinary e-mail 

facility where students can 

communicate with other 

students or with lecturers, and 

vice versa. 

• There’s an NSPH library with 

online access to journals, 

books, research documents 

and other written material. 

• There’s a notice board available 

to all. On this is posted news 

of public health events (academic 

meetings, conferences, international 

gatherings), and also 

movements and availability of 

lecturers and other in-school 

information. 

• Then there are the courses 

themselves. Three subheadings 

in this function are: About the 

Course which provides a 

summary of requirements, 

objectives and content; News 

Flash which contains relevant 

subsidiary material that might 

become available during the 

course, such as printed articles 

and upcoming television 

programmes; and finally the 

Course Material, which is 

divided into units, each focusing 

on a theme and dealt with in 

several lessons. (The course 

material has been developed 

and written at Medunsa.) 

• All submissions of course work 

are made and assessed 

electronically via a device 

called the ‘white board’ or 

virtual lecture room. Essays 

and tests by individual students, 

as well as comments from the 

responsible lecturer, are posted 

here where access is given to 

other students in the group. 

This interactive process, which 

frequently includes group 

discussions via a customised 

chat room, enriches the 

teaching/learning process. 

• A pre-designed course 

schedule provides details of 

course timelines and due dates 

for assignments and gives an 

accurate picture of the time 

given to complete each 

element of the course. In 

addition, details of how 

students are to be evaluated 

and marked are provided. 

‘As you can imagine, it’s a 

teaching-intensive method,’ says 

Mokwena. ‘But for this reason, 

dropout rates are low. Even 

though it’s not easy to replace the 

potential for human interaction 

that can be got in an actual

lecture room, the great advantage 

of this method is that it is 

accessible to so many who would 

otherwise be denied the 

opportunity of postgraduate study. 

This broadened reach is of utmost 

importance in Africa.’ 

The high level of students from 

other countries can be attributed 

to initial funding from the 

pharmaceutical giant Bristol- 

Myers Squibb, who provided 

bursaries across the sub-Saharan 

region for the first five years of 

the NSPH’s life. 

‘But even when the funding 

came to an end,’ explains 

Mokwena, ‘the foreign students 

kept on coming. We had generated 

a reputation, and our only 

marketing has been word-ofmouth. 

It’s obvious there is a 

need for what we offer.’ 

Mokwena defined public 

health as ‘a discipline that deals 

with the health of groups and 

populations (rather than 

individuals) and that rests on a 

foundation of five core elements. 

These are social/behavioural 

issues, health systems management, 

epidemiology, bio-statistics which 

puts the numbers into epidemiology, 

environmental/occupational 

health. Masters students major in 

one of these specialities. 

NSPH students are drawn from 

the ranks of existing nurses, 

doctors, pharmacists, dentists, 

health inspectors, social workers, 

managers from health departments 

or any other sphere where 

a health focus is required. 

‘Our students have included 

Dr Kebogile Mokwena, director of Medunsa’s 

National 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 her 

doctorate in Public Health from the University of 

South Carolina. She also completed a Higher 

Education Diploma from Unisa. Now she’s passing 

on her knowledge to hundreds of postgraduate 

students from South Africa and other Southern 

African countries. 

the Swaziland Minister of Health, 

the Health MEC in Gauteng and 

other top government people, 

hospital managers and World 

Health Organisation personnel,’ 

says Mokwena. She adds with 

obvious pride that Medunsa’s 

NSPH is the first public health 

school in South Africa to produce 

a doctoral graduate. 

So successful has the NSPH 

been that the public health courses 

on the Turfloop campus of the 

newly-merged University of 

Limpopo have been absorbed into 

the NSPH. It’s certainly one of the 

ways that the merger is helping to 

maintain the quality of tuition on 

both campuses. 

P A G E 2 5

P A G E 2 6

Ecology: 

THE LEGACY OF ANTS 

fFEW TRAVELLERS TO THE FAMOUS FLOWERS OF 

NAMAQUALAND KNOW OF THE EXISTENCE OF 

THE UNIQUE AGE-OLD TERMITE NESTS TO BE 

FOUND IN THIS BEAUTIFUL AREA OF SOUTH 

AFRICA. 

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 nests 

with an average height of one metre and a diameter 

of up to 30 metres. It is, therefore, quite apt that these 

nests are known as heuweltjies (hillocks) among the 

residents of Namaqualand. Millions of these 

heuweltjies are found on the West Coast from the 

Piketberg area up to the border with Namibia. 

Research shows that the Cape climate at the time 

of the building of the termite heuweltjies supported an 

open savannah area, more suited to the prevalence 

of termites. The current semi-desert heuweltjie-studded 

landscape is, therefore, a telling example of the results 

of climate change. 

But there’s a lot more to the heuweltjies than this. 

They’re easily recognisable by the unique vegetation 

to be found on them. This vegetation differs from the 

surrounding vegetation and is the result of changed 

soil and other characteristics that are connected with 

the termite nests. As the plant species that grow on 

the heuweltjies are, according to livestock farmers in 

the area, tasty to the livestock that is farmed in 

Namaqualand, heuweltjies form an important 

management component of the small-animal industry in 

the area. Not only are the heuweltjies important to the 

livestock farmers for management purposes, but the 

grain farmers in the area are also affected by the 

changing characteristics of the soil as a result of the 

prevalence of heuweltjies. 

Little scientifically-founded knowledge on 

heuweltjies is available and even the recommended 

Professor Dirk Wessels 

carrying capacity of heuweltjie veld is still 

scientifically unfounded at present. 

Research on Namaqualand’s heuweltjies now forms 

part 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 tip 

of South Africa to the border of Angola, with a branch 

off to the lichen fields of the central Namib desert. 

Here, research is being done on a number of subjects 

ranging from lichens, soil fungi, plants and animals, to 

agricultural and socio-economic aspects of farmers 

and other communities in the trajectory. 

Scientists from a number of universities and other 

institutions in Germany, as well as universities and 

government departments in South Africa and Namibia, 

are participating. Professor Dirk Wessels of the 

University of Limpopo, an expert on the lichen fields 

of the Namib, is part of a specialist group of 

international scientists led by Professor Burkhard Büdel 

of the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany doing 

research on the biological soil crust of heuweltjies and 

other areas in the research trajectory. 

P A G E 2 7

Ecology: THE LEGACY OF ANTS 

Biological soil crusts comprise of micro-organisms 

that attach to grains of soil in the surface layer to form 

a dense crust on the surface that in Namaqualand and 

Namibia could be as large as several hectares. 

Biological soil crusts also occur frequently in Limpopo 

Province. Several species of cyano bacteria 

(commonly referred to as ‘black algae’ in swimming 

pools), algae, bacteria, fungi, and crust-like 

earthbound lichen species form part of such biological 

soil crusts. According to scientists, centimetre-deep 

layers of biological soil crusts may take more than 

100 years to develop 

Cyano bacteria are ancient residents of our planet 

and the first species occurred 3.9 billion years ago. 

Lichens are commonly known as rock flowers or 

stonecrop [korsmosse] and consist of a fungus and 

species of algal that live together in a symbiotic and 

mutually beneficial relationship. More than a thousand 

lichen species that can live to ages of six thousand 

years or more are found in South Africa and Namibia. 

There can be no doubt that biological soil crusts 

are of international ecological importance. They 

prevent erosion, retard desiccation, contribute to 

organic 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 Turfloop 

office, ‘we were surprised to discover that the 

chlorophyll concentration in some of the crusts is 

comparable to chlorophyll concentrations in the 

Atlantic Ocean.’ He explained that chlorophyll is the 

green colouring found in plant leaves that is essential 

for photosynthesis, a light-driven process by which 

atmospheric carbon dioxide and water are transformed 

into sugars that are used as building blocks by plants. 

‘The absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide by 

biological soil crusts are of specific importance in 

P A G E 2 8 

Douw Venter 

today’s world of higher carbon dioxide levels in the 

atmosphere that cause the greenhouse effect. The 

greenhouse effect leads to higher temperatures that, in 

turn, can lead to large-scale climate change,’ Wessels 

points out. 

The rate at which Namaqualand’s soil crusts bind 

atmospheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis is 

being researched by Professor Büdel and his group. 

Professor Wessels, on the other hand, is researching 

the ecology of biological soil crusts. 

This is done by an automatic weather station that 

monitors the microclimate of individual heuweltjies. 

Variations in soil temperature, soil moisture, total 

rainfall, rainfall intensity, light intensity, air 

temperature, air moisture and fog precipitation are 

measured every half hour on a continuous basis. 

The information is gathered and stored electronically, 

using a custom-made data logger designed and built 

by Douw Venter of the University of Limpopo. Eight 

months’ data were recently successfully downloaded 

from the data logger. 

This unique information will enable scientists 

accurately to clarify the complex ecological role of 

biological soil crusts on heuweltjies. They’ll also be 

able to compile a management plan for heuweltjie 

country that will ensure the conservation of the 

biodiversity of the veld type as well as better use of 

the veld by stock farmers in the future. 

So when next you marvel at the lavish springtime 

spectacle of the Namaqualand flowers, spare a 

thought 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 by 

Professor Dirk Wessels.

Visual and dramatic arts: 

A PERMANENT HOME AT LAST 

Professor Salomi Louw 

tTHERE’S A PARTIALLY EMPTY OLD STOREROOM 

ON THE TURFLOOP CAMPUS THAT HAS BEEN 

EARMARKED FOR REINCARNATION AS A CULTURAL 

CENTRE. Indeed, very recently, a small ceremony was 

held on campus when the keys to the building were 

handed over to Professor Salomi Louw, Director of the 

School of Languages and Communication Studies. 

‘The project is now officially under way,’ says 

a jubilant Louw. ‘My first proposal for such a centre 

was dated 1983. So I can hardly believe that we are 

moving at last.’ 

The Cultural Centre will house a 220-seat theatre 

with ample back-stage facilities and storage. The 

seating will be moveable which means the theatre can 

be configured to suit the production – including an 

opportunity to present theatre-in-the-round. Leading off 

the foyer will be space to house indigenous music and 

oral literature collections – as well as local Limpopo 

Province 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 adorning 

her office and reception area. ‘Now we can give them 

all a permanent home and concentrate on enlarging 

our collection into something that people will travel 

long 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 the 

province. ‘We are convinced that our fine art 

collection – not to mention the other activities and 

collections in the Cultural Centre – will attract not only 

students and researchers but also significant numbers 

of tourists onto the Turfloop campus. 

Although funding is still being sought for this 

exciting addition to university infrastructure, Louw is 

confident that interested parties will not be in short 

supply. She points to a recent visit by a deputation 

P A G E 2 9

P A G E 3 0

Visual and dramatic arts: 

A PERMANENT HOME AT LAST 

from the national Department of Arts and Culture, 

including representatives of the SA-Flemish Partnership 

for arts and culture education and training. In 

addition, the DAC officials were keen for the 

University of Limpopo to embark on a comprehensive 

training programme for artists and cultural workers. 

‘We have been informed,’ says Louw, ‘that if we 

embark on the training, funds are available for 

support of the materials needed. Hopefully this will 

translate into support for the establishment of our 

Cultural Centre.’ 

Preliminary plans have already been drawn up by 

a Polokwane firm of architects, and Louw lists the full 

range of objectives of the completed Cultural Centre: 

• To collect and exhibit indigenous arts and crafts, 

and other cultural objects. 

• To provide rehearsal and performance space for 

plays, poetery readings, music and dance, and to 

undertake training in these fields. 

• To house a permanent exhibition of creative 

writing, including oral literature. 

• To make exhibition space (and short-term working 

space) 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 permanent 

collection of photographs, media productions and 

archives. 

Louw says that the cleaning of the building and 

its immediate surroundings will begin with immediate 

effect. 

P A G E 3 1

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

pPREFERENCE WILL BE GIVEN TO SHORT LETTERS. Aim for 

a maximum of 100 to 150 words or expect your epistle to 

be edited. Please give contact details when writing to us. 

No pseudonyms or anonymous letters will be published. 

MISPLACED MAP 

I must point out that in Limpopo Leader 4, 

at the end of your article on Limpopo’s Growth 

and Development Strategy, the map reproduced 

on page 11 is not a map of Limpopo as stated, 

but only a tiny part of the province. 

Joseph Mamabolo 

Senior Manager of Planning Co-ordination 

Office of the Premier 

Limpopo 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 scheme 

mentioned on page 26 of LIMPOPO LEADER 4. 

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develop and promote Tshivenda as a language through development of V 

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The body is concerned about the wrong usage of Tshivenda in your magazine V 

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member of Tshivenda National Language Body. 

V 

Professor MJ Mafela 

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University of Venda for Science and Technology 

Thohoyandou.

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Limpopo Leader - Spring 2005 - University of Limpopo

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