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01 July 2022 | Story André Damons | Photo André Damons
Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa
Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of the Free State, explains to the delegation how some of the machinery and equipment in his laboratory work.

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO Afro) Regional Expert Advisory Committee on Traditional Medicines for COVID-19 Response (REACT), Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), the African Union Commission (AU) joint mission to South Africa have found that the University of the Free State (UFS) has the appropriate laboratories, specialised facilities and capacity to conduct multidisciplinary research, train human resources as well as the ability to attract funding for research on traditional medicine. 

The mission concluded its visit to the country on Friday 24 June by presenting a preliminary report to the departments of Health and Higher Education and Training (DHET). Besides visiting the two national departments and the UFS, the delegation also visited the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), WHO Country Office, Pharma-Ethics, Manufacturing Industry and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). They also visited the three clinical trials sites in Vereeniging, Kimberley and Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). 

Congratulations to UFS and Department of Clinical Pharmacology for PHELA study
The delegation visited the UFS (on Friday 17 June) as it is one of two institutions on the continent conducting multicentered clinical trials on traditional African medicine – PHELA – to be tested in a Phase II clinical trial on COVID-19 patients.

Prof Ossy MJ Kasilo, regional advisor for traditional medicine at the WHO regional office for Africa, who led the mission, congratulated the UFS and the Department of Clinical Pharmacology for putting together the study for PHELA.
According to her, South Africa is one of just two countries they visited conducting multicentered clinical trials on traditional African medicine for COVID-19. “This study is very important to us and on behalf of the WHO Africa, AFRICA CDC, EDCTP and the AU Commission, we would like to congratulate you on this study,” said Prof Kasilo. 
Presenting the preliminary report to the Departments of Health and DHET, Prof Kasilo said they found that the UFS has the appropriate laboratories, research equipment, specialised facilities and capacity to conduct multidisciplinary research, for human capital development, as well as the ability to attract funding. 

“The university also has strong institutional and government support, the existence of an institutional ethics committee and a strong relationship with the industry. There is also strong evidence of collaboration between departments at the UFS; these include Pharmacology, Chemistry, Microbiology and Virology as well as the external research collaboration that includes the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), University of Pretoria, Agricultural research council (UP) and others. 

“The UFS has strong involvement and relationships with communities and the Krwakrwa outreach in the Eastern Cape is an example of university-community partnership. The university together with the Krwakrwa community also has the facility for processing raw materials for herbal medicines, land for pilot medicinal plant cultivation and for later expansion. There are greenhouses for plant nurseries and this project is close to the source of raw materials for traditional medicines being scientifically researched and developed. The community has been trained in a number of skills relevant to them, such as good agricultural cultivation practice (GACP) project management, plant raw material quality processing and capacity building for the Project Team in relevant soft skills relating to management of processing raw materials and facilities,” said Prof Kasilo. 

The objectives of the mission
During their visit to the UFS, Prof Kasilo said with the COVID-19 pandemic a number of African countries had proposed some traditional medicine as therapeutics for COVID-19 treatment. However, these were not backed up by scientific evidence for the safety, efficacy and quality. Therefore the WHO, in collaboration with Africa CDC, African Union Commission and the EDCTP put together protocols for conducting clinical trials on traditional medicine-based therapeutics. 

“The objective of the mission is to review progress the country is making in developing traditional medicine-based therapeutics, in this particular case, PHELA. To identify areas for strengthening country capacity with the view to developing a plan of action with WHO technical support and to monitor the level of implementation of the WHO recommendations regarding the conduct of clinical trials, specifically good clinical practice,” said Prof Kasilo. 

Overview of the UFS 
Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa , who is also the chairperson of REACT, said the mission is here to ascertain the best practices, to identify the possible skills, research facilities and to identify the strength and weaknesses as well as the experts in the country who can be tapped into to give technical support on the continent. “We are not only talking to people, but we are also looking at facilities that could be utilised in the region.”
He also gave the delegates an overview on his PHELA study.  

In her short address, Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research and Internationalisation, gave a brief overview on the UFS. According to her, 3% of the university’s 41 000 students are international students – something the UFS would like to increase. In terms of internationalisation, Prof Witthuhn concluded, the UFS has 70 international active partnerships and is proud to have published almost 6 000 research publications in the past five-year period in collaboration with its international researchers and 2 500 international universities. 

According to her, the vision of the university is to be research-led, student-centered and regionally engaged so it can have an impact regionally. “We always talk about playing a national game but with an international audience.” Prof Witthuhn said.

Representatives also toured some of the university’s world-class laboratories in the Department of Pharmacology, Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, FARMOVS as well as the Prof Felicity Burt’s biosafety Level (BSL) 3 virology laboratory where they got a glimpse into the work being done in these facilities. They also interacted with students and got to see top-of-the-range research equipment. 

 

News Archive

Postgraduates’ new Kovsies home
2013-05-10

 
Some of the guests attending the launch, included from left: Prof Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academic, Dr Henriette van den Berg, Director: Postgraduate School and Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research.
10 May 2013
Photo: Johan Roux

Postgraduate students and their academic 'parents' at the University of the Free State (UFS) now have a dedicated physical, emotional and electronic space to provide for their specialised needs in order to further promote research excellence at the UFS.

The university's Postgraduate School was launched in May 2011, but ventured further in the quest to fulfil and expand its mandate with new initiatives. These different aspects of the school were launched on Wednesday 8 May 2013 in the CR Swart Auditorium on the Bloemfontein Campus. The postgraduate strategy, postgraduate prospectus, the website and the headquarters of the Postgraduate School in the Johannes Brill Building were all unveiled and launched.

Prof Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academic, who was a major driving force behind the formation of the Postgraduate School, during her address at the opening emphasised the multifaceted and unique relationships which often exist between students and supervisors.

Prof Hay, who has a distinguished academic background in postgraduate teaching, made plain her expectations for the Postgraduate School. She said it aims to "create an intellectual space for postgraduate students and supervisors" in order to produce world-class intellectuals at this university.

She said the school will empower both students who often don't know what to expect from supervision, as well as supervisors who often lack supervision skills. Through this it will be possible to create healthy, productive relationships between the distinct pairs in often misunderstood, unbalanced and intricate interactions.

Dr Henriette van den Berg, Director of the Postgraduate School, introduced the strategic plan of the school and emphasised the great strides that have already been made and what still needs to be done at the UFS in terms of postgraduate teaching. According to her, the Postgraduate School aims towards "holistic development of postgraduate students with transferable skills," through a multi-level and institution-wide approach at the university.

"Our aim is to develop a one-step service for postgraduate students, involving all the different stakeholders," she said.

The new Postgraduate School website was also showcased during the event. Reachable through a number of avenues on the main website, the site offers a digital version of the Johannes Brill Building. Brimming with features catering specifically for local, international, current and prospective students, the website provides crucial information.

The Johannes Brill Building's refurbished interior, with staff offices, seminar rooms and social spaces, were also showcased to UFS' staff and students. The initial phase of the Supervisors' Wall of Fame was also unveiled. According to Dr van den Berg , the wall will after completion bestow much-deserved praise on a hand-picked group of 60 supervisors who have respectively been responsible for more than 300 and more than 500 successful PhD and master's candidates over the past decade.

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