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29 April 2022 | Story André Damons
Dr Asha Malan
Dr Asha Malan, Head of the division for Vascular Surgery in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), is the first woman vascular surgeon to head an Academic Unit in South Africa and the youngest Head of Vascular Surgery.

Dr Asha Malan, Head of the division for Vascular Surgery in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), is not only one of just seven qualified female vascular surgeons in the country; she is also the first female vascular surgeon to head an academic unit in South Africa and the youngest Head of Vascular Surgery yet.

Dr Malan says she is honoured to represent women in the field of Vascular Surgery – a historically male-dominated field. One of her main objectives now is to attract more women to this field. In 2020, she was simultaneously appointed the Acting Head of the Department for General Surgery when Dr Nicholas Pearce became the head of the Universitas Academic Hospital COVID-19 Task team. 

“To be very honest – I had not previously thought about this (being the first female to head a unit for Vascular Surgery). I have always been of the opinion that if I achieve something in life, it should be because I worked hard enough for it and was blessed with God-given opportunities.  This was one of the life lessons taught to me by my two amazing parents. 

“It is an absolute privilege to be in this position at such a young age. I have been in the fortunate position where hard work indeed paid off and to a large extent, I was incredibly lucky. I believe my age counts in my favour – I am keen to learn (which is a daily exercise) and take on new opportunities. I am still ‘naïve’ enough to dream big and market my dream of offering state-of-the-art vascular surgical care for all,” says Dr Malan.  

Passion for Vascular Surgery
According to her, she has been granted opportunities to develop her skills by visiting units in other countries including Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. Later this year she is off to the Netherlands, France and the US to build on this and teach these skills locally. 

Dr Malan is passionate about vascular surgery and calls it one of the most beautiful types of surgery. She decided to become a medical doctor at school when her Biology teacher, Mrs Em Volschenk, triggered an appreciation for the workings of the human body.

It is her obsessive and perfectionist personality that attracted her to vascular surgery. The love to fix things, she calls it.

“I have always gained great joy from making something cleaner, neater and better. Medicine, and more in particular, surgery, provides you with the absolute privilege to do so for the human body. Vascular surgery is one of the most beautiful types of surgery. It is neat and clean, but at the same time challenging. It provides the opportunity to perform surgery on any part of the body and develop your surgical skills. 

“In addition, it makes you calm and comfortable in high-stress situations.  The most tiring part of vascular surgery is, however, not the physical strain nor the hours, but the intense planning it requires – it is in some aspects like the engineering of surgery – you sometimes have to come up with solutions to problems that no textbook will contain. It is currently one of the fastest growing surgical subspecialties worldwide due to the innovation happening within the field. It is a way of thinking and I love every moment,” states Dr Malan.

She is well aware of the responsibility that comes with this important position and feels honoured to pave the way forward. Says Dr Malan: “I am currently one of only two female consultant surgeons in the Department of General Surgery and I strongly believe we bring a unique perspective. We also have a particular leadership style that is inclusive and encouraging – contributing to an environment where others can grow and strengthen the Department.”

Not many women in surgery
According to Dr Malan, surgery historically has a bad name due to the hours and demands of the job. Surgeons need to be available almost all the time – a schedule that fails to conform to the traditional expectations of women. This is even more so for vascular surgery, as many of our patients require emergency care that does not respect “working hours”. On the other hand, says Dr Malan, she believes most women possess the ability to multitask efficiently.

“Not only can we do a number of things at once, but can also do them well. Females have mastered the art of balancing the demands of both their work- and personal-lives more and more and society is generally more receptive to this as well. This provides a definite advantage to not only function, but flourish in the field of surgery and vascular surgery.”

The first step to get more women involved in this field, says Dr Malan, is to show it can be done.  Females are featuring in surgical leadership roles worldwide on an increasing front and prominent role models are key to igniting interest and self-belief. 

Harvard University Surgical Leadership Programme
Dr Malan graduated from the Harvard University Surgical Leadership Programme in April this year and says it was an amazing experience to liaise with colleagues in leadership roles within their respective surgical departments across the globe. It was an honour to represent the University of the Free State in this capacity.

According to her, Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, was instrumental in retaining her for the university after she qualified as a vascular surgeon. She received offers from other universities and private practice, but was keen to stay on as she envisaged a career in academics. “I had a dream of building a nationally recognised quality Vascular Surgery Unit that not only excels in clinical service delivery, but also in undergraduate- and postgraduate-training – this vision was already developing as we performed the first complex endovascular aortic repair in a state hospital in South Africa in 2019. Prof Petersen made time to listen to my dream and initiated the process for me to start realising it.”

She would like to give credit to her predecessors, particularly Prof Renald Barry who has been a mentor to her and with whom she had the privilege of operating until last year. In addition, she would like to thank her colleagues in the Department of Surgery and Vascular Surgery, who continue to inspire her every day.

News Archive

Artistic development at UFS to transform the face of Bloemfontein creatively
2015-07-02

The 7-metre high ‘Urban Fox’ is one of Alex Rinsler's artworks adding a fragment of the wild to the city of Shanghai in China.

Bold, bright, and beautiful public art sculptures are in the inception phase at the university’s Bloemfontein Campus. Manchester-based public artist, Alex Rinsler, of the Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD)’s forum for artist development, is to install three enthralling sculptures in the city of Bloemfontein.

The PIAD forum for artist development is an initiative of the Vrystaat Arts Festival, formerly known as the Vryfees, which aims to celebrate art in the Free State by hosting experimental art practices. In its capacity as a PIAD partner, the University of the Free State promotes increased access to, and participation in, culture as a form of human development.

Presenting an artist’s talk titled ‘Urban Safari: Art in public space,’ on the Bloemfontein Campus recently Rinsler introduced himself and his creative ideas to students, staff, and the public at the Johannes Stegman Art Gallery. The talk served as an invitation to the active participation of Bloemfontein citizens in all phases leading to the installations. Dispersed across the Mangaung Metropolitan, the giant sculptures are intended to capture and reflect different aspects of the community’s lived experiences. 

As a public artist based in the United Kingdom (UK), Rinsler has exhibited in cities nationally and internationally, with the intention of bringing a touch of the wild to urban lives. His vision is to witness the development of cities into cultural boulevards, and explore “what we can do to bring back the sense of nature, the wild” by adding new symbolism to urban lifestyle.

“I believe in creating work accessible to the public, which stimulates conversation,” said the Clore Leadership Programme Fellow (University of Manchester) and Founder of Pirate Technics - an artistic practice company.

In 2012, he worked with 31 Master’s students from 24 countries on an icon for global peace named “Under the Baobab” in London. The colourful and magnificent Baobab tree made from pieces of fabric representing distinct cultures told the story of migration to London.

Rinsler is determined that the Bloemfontein “project, similar to the London installation, will create imagery that people will remember.”

Dr Ricardo Peach, Director of the Vrystaat Arts Festival and PIAD, hopes the project fosters diversity while producing a “communal cultural product." 

“What I know about Alex’s work is that he will be working with what he calls a self-selected community, people who are interested in this, and who want to work together to build these sculptures, as part as a process for them to get a sense of where they belong, and their input into the city. It’s about people telling their own stories.”

The public installations are a way of transforming the landscape, and connecting people of “a place like Bloemfontein where communities are often still so divided,” said Peach.

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