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11 November 2021 | Story Andrè Damons
Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa
Good news galore. Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, Professor and Director of Pharmacology at the University of the Free State (UFS), received more good news recently when he was awarded a Visiting Professorship at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (BUCM) in Beijing, China, as well as being elected as the Deputy President of the South African Society for Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. Prof Matsabisa was also recommended by Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, part of the IBSA technical committee.

Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, Professor and Director of Pharmacology at the University of the Free State (UFS), received more good news recently when he was awarded a Visiting Professorship at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (BUCM) in Beijing, China. This news comes at the same time as the traditional medicine expert has been elected as the Deputy President of the South African Society for Basic and Clinical Pharmacology.

This is, however, not the end of the good news for Prof Matsabisa. Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, recommended him to Naledi Pandor, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, to be part of the India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) working group in traditional medicine. As a member of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) Indigenous Knowledge-based Bio-Innovation programme, Prof Matsabisa, together with Prof Nceba Gqaleni, is part of the IBSA technical committee. Prof Matsabisa is also part of a technical team for National Department of Health on traditional medicines for the IBSA countries 

Unexpected honours

“I was not expecting any of these honours. It comes as a total shock. To have gone through the stringent evaluation and selection process at the BUCM and made it to the university’s highest award, is an honour. This is recognition of my academic and research quality by my peers on an international level.

“Being elected to lead a society of researchers and clinicians in the field of Pharmacology in the country is further recognition nationally of the academic and research excellence status. These awards coming at the same time is unbelievable. I am proud of the work I do as well as a gesture of support from scientists nationally and internationally and the support from UFS having allowed me to do what I do best academically,” says Prof Matsabisa.

According to him, some of the key expectations for this Visiting Professorship at the BUCM are teaching, to do collaborative research and conduct workshops jointly as well as joint leverage of research funding and co-publications. Prof Matsabisa will now, together with his counterparts at BUCM, discuss and synchronise their teaching and research so they plan the visit to benefit the UFS and the BUCM.

The South African Society for Basic and Clinical Pharmacology’s main activities are to bring pharmacologists together and share new scientific knowledge and developments in the field, explains Prof Matsabisa. The Society is for teaching and training; including research in both basic and clinical pharmacology, to support pharmacology conferences nationally and continentally. “We develop young pharmacologists and are also affiliated to international pharmacology societies. The purpose of the South African Society for Basic and Clinical Pharmacology is to excel and grow the pharmacology field in medicine.”

A good year for pharmacology and the UFS

This has been a good year for him and the team, for pharmacology and the UFS, says Prof Matsabisa. Most recently, Prof Matsabisa and the Department of Pharmacology received a grant of R58 million to establish one of the most advanced modern Pharmacology GLP-accredited research and development laboratories in the country, and possibly in the region. The department has also been awarded an annual Technology and Innovation Agency Platform (TIA) grant of R17 million for the next five years early this year.

“I am able to do what I do and achieve all this because of teamwork. I have a value chain of teams from support staff, cleaners, security, technical and research scientists with me. I have good students, postdoctoral fellows as well as management behind me.

“I hope such an environment can be given to all researchers to do what they do best and be supported fully and genuinely by senior management with decisions that are favourable to growing the institution without any favouritism or prejudice to anyone. It has indeed been a good year with all the funding we received. Watch this space for more.”

Looking forward most to China

Prof Matsabisa says he is looking forward to taking some of his postgraduate students with him to spend time at BUCM for training and conducting research. Says Prof Matsabisa: “I have very good postgraduate research students that need all the support. I look forward to spending a month or so at BUCM teaching BUCM students. I will leave my students there in good hands for 6-12 months per year. I promise, when these students return, they will return with a positive attitude for research and accountability.”

This was the case for him when he got a British scholarship to spend time at GlaxoSmithKline and the University of Bradford in the UK for his PhD. 

Prof Matsabisa hopes to use this Professorship at BUCM to popularise the work of the UFS and to create opportunities for new and upcoming researchers in the field of Pharmacology of Medicinal plants. This is his development plan

News Archive

Researcher transforms despair into diamonds
2016-01-18

PhD candidate, Lerato Machetela and some members of the group Diamonds in the Rough having some fun between rehearsals.

Awash in hopelessness, substance abuse, violence, and sexual promiscuity. This is the lived reality of the youth in Jagersfontein. But now Lerato Machetela is using her research to change it.

As a PhD candidate in Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS), Machetela assembled a group of 14 young men – ranging between the ages of 9 and 18 – who call themselves Jagersfontein’s Diamonds in the Rough. Combining elements from psychology, education, and entertainment, Machetela has established a platform that grounds these young ones adrift in circumstances. By means of song and dance, these young ones have become grounded through creativity.

While discussing what it means to be free in the new South Africa, Machetela asked the group to come up with a song similar to the struggle song, ‘Nelson Mandela usi litheli ixolo’.

Jagersfontein’s Diamonds in the Rough Researcher, Lerato Machetela, combines psychology, education, and entertainment to ground local youths through creativity.

The result: He’s a teenager, but he drinks Hansa.

“This then developed into a dance routine depicting what the youth is doing with their freedom,” Machetela says. With each beat of their boots and rhythmic clap of their hands, the group illustrates the ways in which the youth has constructed – and come to understand – their daily realities. “The routine includes the expression of alcohol and drug abuse, and ends of with the importance of education.”

Through the creative expressions of Diamonds in the Rough, Machetela is able not only to explore the reality of the youth in Jagersfontein, but also to investigate intergenerational trauma. “I am looking at whether there is a relationship between these young people’s current circumstances and the experiences of their parents’ generation during the apartheid years. That is, what sort of meanings do they construct as young, black South Africans growing up in the new South Africa?”

What started off as a research project is now rippling beyond academic spheres, though. The Free State Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation has taken note of this initiative. As a result, the group has already performed at the Bloem Show, International Museums Day, and Heritage Day celebrations, as well as at the Mangaung African Cultural Festival (MACUFE).  

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