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16 February 2023 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Anja Aucamp
Samson Diamond, Jeanne-Louise Moolman, Prof Anmari van der Westhuizen-Joubert, and Sharon de Kock with the QoP instruments created by luthier Brian Lisus to honour SA’s Nobel peace laureates.

Hope, the viola; Freedom, the first violin; Peace, the second violin; and Reconciliation, the cello, collectively known as the Quartet of Peace (QoP), have found their home at the UFS. The Odeion String Quartet (OSQ) has been made the custodians of this world-famous quartet created by Brian Lisus. The instruments were created by Lisus in 2010 to commemorate the four Nobel peace laureates of South Africa, namely Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, FW de Klerk, and Desmond Tutu. In March 2022, Lisus presented a lecture in the Odeion Theatre to officially present these instruments to the UFS.

Many new performing opportunities 

“The trustees found that justice will be done by making the Odeion String Quartet the new custodians, since they are the only quartet-in-residence at a South African university,” says Prof Anmari van der Westhuizen-Joubert, cellist and Head of the OSQ.

As the custodians of the QoP, it brought many new performing opportunities, both nationally and internationally. “It can also be used in presentations of lectures on all subjects and not only of a political nature. In this way, string quartet music reaches more people than just those who go to concert halls,” Prof Van der Westhuizen-Joubert says. The OSQ consists of Prof Van der Westhuizen-Joubert (cellist), Samson Diamond (violinist and leader of the string quartet), Sharon de Kock (violinist), and Jeanne-Louise Moolman (violinist).

Unique part of UFS identity

The uniqueness of the QoP instruments will be an important element of the OSQ, the Odeion School of Music, the Faculty of the Humanities, as well as the entire UFS community. “One of the plans is to raise money to enable students to come and study with the Odeion String Quartet members at the UFS,” Prof Van der Westhuizen-Joubert says. Another historic moment with these instruments took place in October 2022, when the instruments took centre stage at a concert hosted by Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. At this event, the QoP instruments were introduced to the public, important stakeholders, and to guests of the UFS. Other plans include trips to international festivals such as the Ojai Music Festival in the USA in 2023 and the String Quartet Biennale in Amsterdam in 2024.

*This article  first appeared in the Bult Magazine.

News Archive

Heart diseases a time bomb in Africa, says UFS expert
2010-05-17

 Prof. Francis Smit

There are a lot of cardiac problems in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to the largest population of rheumatic heart disease patients in the world and therefore hosts the largest rheumatic heart valve population in the world. They are more than one million, compared to 33 000 in the whole of the industrialised world, says Prof. Francis Smit, Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS).

He delivered an inaugural lecture on the topic Cardiothoracic Surgery: Complex simplicity, or simple complexity?

“We are also sitting on a time bomb of ischemic heart disease with the WHO (World Health Organisation) estimating that CAD (coronary artery disease) will become the number-one killer in our region by 2020. HIV/Aids is expected to go down to number 7.”

Very little is done about it. There is neither a clear nor coordinated programme to address this expected epidemic and CAD is regarded as an expensive disease, confined to Caucasians in the industrialised world. “We are ignoring alarming statistics about incidences of adult obesity, diabetes and endemic hypertension in our black population and a rising incidence of coronary artery interventions and incidents in our indigenous population,” Prof. Smit says.

Outside South Africa – with 44 units – very few units (about seven) perform low volumes of basic cardiac surgery. The South African units at all academic institutions are under severe threat and about 70% of cardiac procedures are performed in the private sector.

He says the main challenge in Africa has become sustainability, which needs to be addressed through education. Cardiothoracic surgery must become part of everyday surgery in Africa through alternative education programmes. That will make this specialty relevant at all levels of healthcare and it must be involved in resource allocation to medicine in general and cardiothoracic surgery specifically.

The African surgeon should make the maximum impact at the lowest possible cost to as many people in a society as possible. “Our training in fields like intensive care and insight into pulmonology, gastroenterology and cardiology give us the possibility of expanding our roles in African medicine. We must also remember that we are trained physicians as well.

“Should people die or suffer tremendously while we can train a group of surgical specialists or retraining general surgeons to expand our impact on cardiothoracic disease in Africa using available technology maybe more creatively? We have made great progress in establishing an African School for Cardiothoracic Surgery.”

Prof. Smit also highlighted the role of the annual Hannes Meyer National Registrar Symposium that culminated in having an eight-strong international panel sponsored by the ICC of EACTS to present a scientific course as well as advanced surgical techniques in conjunction with the Hannes Meyer Symposium in 2010.

Prof. Smit says South Africa is fast becoming the driving force in cardiothoracic surgery in Africa. South Africa is the only country that has the knowledge, technology and skills base to act as the springboard for the development of cardiothoracic surgery in Africa.

South Africa, however, is experiencing its own problems. Mortality has doubled in the years from 1997 to 2005 and half the population in the Free State dies between 40 to 44 years of age.

“If we do not need health professionals to determine the quality and quantity of service delivery to the population and do not want to involve them in this process, we can get rid of them, but then the political leaders making that decision must accept responsibility for the clinical outcomes and life expectancies of their fellow citizens.

“We surely cannot expect to impose the same medical legal principles on professionals working in unsafe hospitals and who have complained and made authorities aware of these conditions than upon those working in functional institutions. Either fixes the institutions or indemnifies medical personnel working in these conditions and defends the decision publicly.

“Why do I have to choose the three out of four patients that cannot have a lifesaving operation and will have to die on their own while the system pretends to deliver treatment to all?”

Prof. Smit says developing a service package with guidelines in the public domain will go a long way towards addressing this issue. It is also about time that we have to admit that things are simply not the same. Standards are deteriorating and training outcomes are or will be affected.

The people who make decisions that affect healthcare service delivery and outcomes, the quality of training platforms and research, in a word, the future of South African medicine, firstly need rules and boundaries. He also suggested that maybe the government should develop health policy in the public domain and then outsource healthcare delivery to people who can actually deliver including thousands of experts employed but ignored by the State at present.

“It is time that we all have to accept our responsibilities at all levels… and act decisively on matters that will determine the quality and quantity of medical care for this and future generations in South Africa and Africa. Time is running out,” Prof. Smit says.
 

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