Limpopo Leader - Spring 2005 - University of Limpopo

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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 SAUVCA (which has now been superseded by HESA – Higher Education South Africa – and incorporates the old technikons with the old universities under a single umbrella) has now been given the task of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
Page 1 and 2: LIMPOPO NUMBER 5 SPRING 2005 LIMPOP
Page 3 and 4: News flash: THE LATEST ON MEDUNSA A
Page 5 and 6: IN THIS ISSUE cover picture: Geneti
Page 7 and 8: iIN THE 1980S THERE WERE MACHINEGUN
Page 9 and 10: Sky Mkuti, Goldmarks Makamure, Tapi
Page 11: orn in Harare (then Salisbury) in 1
Page 15 and 16: the Swiss instrument makers. They b
Page 17 and 18: Dr David Norris tTO WATCH DR DAVID
Page 19 and 20: Rural Community Empowerment: SMALL
Page 21 and 22: SMALL VERSUS BIG - AN IMPORTANT AGR
Page 23 and 24: Professor Ulrich Mennen a psycholog
Page 25 and 26: end of the life of OIP early in 200
Page 27 and 28: lecture room, the great advantage o
Page 29 and 30: Ecology: THE LEGACY OF ANTS fFEW TR
Page 31 and 32: Visual and dramatic arts: A PERMANE
Page 33 and 34: Visual and dramatic arts: A PERMANE
Page 35 and 36: SUPPORT THE TRANSFORMATION THE Univ

Limpopo Leader - Spring 2005 - University of Limpopo

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