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16 March 2020 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Charl Devenish
Health Sciences_read more
From left to right: Prof Gert van Zyl (Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences), Prof Marlene Viljoen (previous Head: School of Nursing), Prof Fransis Petersen (Rector and Vice-Chancellor), Prof Tiney Crous (previous Head: Dept. Physiotherapy) and Prof Philip Badenhorst (Previous Head: Department of Haematology and guest speaker.
The Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) kicked of its 50-year anniversary celebrations on Tuesday night (10 March) with a cocktail function and some entertaining stories from the old days by one of its former heads of department.
  
Prof Philip Badenhorst, a former Head of the Department of Haematology and Cell Biology, had the crowd of distinguished guests – including Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, Prof Gert van Zyl, Dean of the faculty, other heads of department and former heads of schools, as well as deans from other faculties  – in stitches with tales from days gone by.

Among the other guests in the Francois Retief Building were also members of the alumni, student representatives, and private hospital managers.

Prof Badenhorst, who started working in Bloemfontein in December 1969 and retired forty years later in 2009, said he had the privilege of witnessing first-hand the founding and development of the faculty. 

“I have witnessed the faculty grow from a bare field to the completion of a striking building complex; from a few staff members to an institution on par with the best by the time I left. I witnessed achievements that have astonished the world,” he said before going on to reflect on some funny incidents. 

Prof Van Zyl, who did the welcoming, gave a brief history of the establishment of the faculty and highlighted some important dates. 
 “Let me start by saying, where were you 50 years ago? What an achievement. This is the first of our celebrations for our 50-year anniversary. But I need to say immediately, it didn’t start 50 years ago. When I looked at the history of the faculty, it already started in 1950.” 

“I need to go back to the first official reference to medical training, and that was already in 1950 when the Brebner Commission into dental and medical education announced that they think there should be medical schools, as defined in the writings of Prof FP Retief, the founding dean. They announced that there were three areas and identified the Free State as their preference for a medical school.”

According to the references, the announcement of a medical school in the Free State only came on 6 June 1969 at the official opening of the OFS Institute of Isotopes and Radiation, when Minister CPC de Wet informed the approximately 450 ecstatic guests that the government had decided in principle to establish, in time, medical training facilities at three universities, namely the University of the Orange Free State, RAU, and the University of Natal.  

Health_content

Seated:  Prof Joyce Tsoka-Gwegweni:  Vice Dean – Research, Transformation and Marketing: Faculty of Health Sciences, Mrs Marietjie Claassen,   Prof Tiney  Crous,  Mrs Marié Potgieter
and  Prof Jocelyn Naiker (MC)   Back: Prof Jan Botha (previous Head: Forensic Medicine), Prof John  Shipley (previous Head:  Orthopaedic Surgery),  Porf Corli Witthuhn
(Vice-Rector: Research, Innovation  and Internationalisation)

 The first employee of the new faculty was Mr MJ (Boffie) Strydom who was appointed as assistant registrar on 21 July. He commenced duty on 1 October and would play a remarkable role as Chief Administrative Officer in the faculty until his retirement in 1986. In recognition of his role, the central committee room in the faculty was named after him after his death. Prof FP Retief, the first Dean, commenced duty on 1 January 1970.


Other important dates include:
• On 16 February 1970, the JSAC convened for the first time and established the core of the future academic staff structure.
• On 23 February, sketch plans and costings regarding the faculty building were submitted to the Executive Committee (EC) of the Council.
• A preliminary Faculty Council meeting was held in the tearoom of the National Hospital on 14 September 1970, followed by the first full status Faculty Board meeting on 25 February 1971.
• The first students to register at the faculty on 26 June, were eleven postgraduate MMed students.
• The first intake of first-year students was in February 1971.
• On 20 March 1978, the faculty building was formally opened.

News Archive

Fracking in the Karoo has advantages and disadvantages
2012-05-25

 

Dr Danie Vermeulen
Photo: Leatitia Pienaar
25 May 2012

Fracking for shale gas in the Karoo was laid bare during a public lecture by Dr Danie Vermeulen, Director of the Institute for Groundwater Studies (IGS). He shared facts, figures and research with his audience. No “yes” or “no” vote was cast. The audience was left to decide for itself.

The exploitation of shale gas in the pristine Karoo has probably been one of the most debated issues in South Africa since 2011.
 
Dr Vermeulen’s lecture, “The shale gas story in the Karoo: both sides of the coin”, was the first in a series presented by the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science under the theme “Sustainability”. Dr Vermeulen is a trained geo-hydrologist and geologist. He has been involved in fracking in South Africa since the debate started. He went on a study tour to the USA in 2011 to learn more about fracking and he visited the USA to further his investigation in May 2012.
 
Some of the information he shared, includes:

- It is estimated that South Africa has the fifth-largest shale-gas reserves in the world, following on China, the USA, Argentina and Mexico.
- Flow-back water is stored in sealed tanks and not in flow-back dams.
- Fracturing will not contaminate the water in an area, as the drilling of the wells will go far deeper than the groundwater aquifers. Every well has four steel casings – one within the other – with the gaps between them sealed with cement.
- More than a million hydraulic fracturing simulations took place in the USA without compromising fresh groundwater. The surface activities can cause problems because that is where man-made and managerial operations could cause pollution.
- Water use for shale-gas exploration is lower than for other kinds of energy, but the fact that the Karoo is an arid region makes the use of groundwater a sensitive issue. Dr Vermeulen highlighted this aspect as his major concern regarding shale-gas exploration.
- The cost to develop is a quarter of the cost for an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Dolerite intrusions in the Karoo are an unresearched concern. Dolerite is unique to the South African situation. Dolerite intrusion temperatures exceed 900 °C.

He also addressed the shale-gas footprint, well decommissioning and site reclamation, radio activity in the shale and the low possibility of seismic events.
 
Dr Vermeulen said South Africa is a net importer of energy. About 90% of its power supply is coal-based. For continued economic growth, South Africa needs a stable energy supply. It is also forecast that energy demand in South Africa is growing faster than the average global demand.
 
Unknowns to be addressed in research and exploration are the gas reserves and gas needs of South Africa. Do we have enough water? What will be the visual and social impact? Who must do the exploration?
 
“Only exploration will give us these answers,” Dr Vermeulen said.

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