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12 June 2025 | Story André Damons | Photo Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation
Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa
Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, a specialist in indigenous knowledge systems from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of the Free State (UFS), and Jansie Niehaus, NSTF Executive Director and Company Director, at the Second Ministerial Belt and Road Science and Technology conference (BRT) in China.

Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, a specialist in indigenous knowledge systems from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of the Free State (UFS), is part of a delegation with Prof Blade Nzimande, minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation (DSTI), to the Second Ministerial Belt and Road Science and Technology conference (BRT) in China. 

The conference is being held in Chengdu from 11-12 June 2025 and will gather representatives from state-level agencies, scientific academies, and innovation enterprises from countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The theme of the conference is “Together for Innovation, Development for All – Jointly Building a Scientific and Technological Innovation Community for the Belt and Road”. 

Prof Matsabisa, Research Director of the African Medicines Innovations and Technologies Development at the UFS, is the only person from a South African university to be invited by Prof Nzimande as part of this ministerial trip. Other members of the delegation include members from the minister’s department, CEOs and board members of agencies that report to the DSTI – namely Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), National Advisory Council on Innovation, Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions, National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF), National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), South African National Space Agency and the National Research Foundation (NRF). 

As a guest professor at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (BUCM) in Beijing, Prof Matsabisa accompanied the delegation on a visit to the university where he has a longstanding relationship. The UFS has the only active university collaboration within the China-South African Science and Technology bilateral agreement.

 

Supporting around aspects of traditional medicine 

According to a statement on the South African government website, Prof Nzimande expressed the department’s intention to strengthen collaboration with the Beijing University and the Aerospace Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the areas of indigenous knowledge systems and space science, respectively. The minister visited both the BUCM and the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences this week. 

“It is an honour to be part of the minister’s delegation given that I am the only person from a university amongst the agencies. The UFS is indeed very honoured to have been the only one identified to be in this ministerial trip. I am honoured to make connections with the decision-makers such as the chairperson of the board of TIA and the CEO of NSTF and all the other CEOs. It’s indeed an honour to share our work with people from NACI and the minister’s office at DSTI. This really could not have been a better opportune moment for me,” says Prof Matsabisa. 

According to him, he is there to support Prof Nzimande around aspects of traditional medicine as well as with his meeting with the Chinese Minister of Science and Technology during the signing of a letter of intent on traditional medicines including in the BRT conference where the minister will give a talk that will cover traditional medicines. Prof Matsabisa says he is looking forward to strengthening the relationships between the UFS and BUCM and China as well as sharing with the minister the joint projects and joint students from both institutions, hoping for continued support and funding.

“This trip has opened new opportunities. TIA has invited me and the UFS to be part of their new project on neurodegenerative diseases with Cuba. It was wonderful to hear that both the CEO and the chairperson of the board had already been briefed about me to be part of the project.

“It is also great to be present at the signing of the letter of intent on traditional medicine as it is important to know where the policies are heading.”

News Archive

PhD students’ voices reverberate across Africa and beyond
2014-01-14

 

Noel Ndumeya, Tinashe Nyamunda, Ivo Mhike and Anusa Daimon
Photo: Hannes Pieterse
The Centre of Africa Studies (CAS) has been recruiting the best young scholars from across the SADC region – with magnificent success. In the span of six months, four PhD students have excelled both on the African continent and abroad.

Anusa Daimon, Noel Ndumeya, Ivo Mhike and Tinashe Nyamunda – the names of these distinguished students. Set against the backdrop of global excellence and competition, they have been awarded several positions at conferences and already published world-wide.

Anusa Daimon’s PhD studies at the CAS focuses on Malawian migrants and their descendants in Southern Africa. It explores issues of identity construction and agency among this group.

Since his arrival at the CAS, Daimon has won two fully-funded awards to attend international conferences and workshops. He was invited to attend the Young African Scholars Conference at Cambridge University in the UK. He also went to Brazil to the IGK Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History Summer Academy. This workshop explored the historical and modern meanings and practices of work in terms of ‘freedom’ and ‘unfreedom’.

Noel Ndumeya holds a special interest in environmental history and the aspects of conservation and conflict. His PhD hones in on land and agrarian studies with specific focus on South Eastern Zimbabwe.

Ndumeya has won an award from the African Studies Association United Kingdom (ASAUK). This earned him an invitation to Nairobi, Kenya, to work with an editor from the Journal of Southern Africa Studies (JSAS).

Ivo Mhike’s research specialises in youth culture and their relationship with the state. In his PhD he uses juvenile delinquency as a window towards an analysis of social constructs of youth behaviour. This includes youth policy and their institutional and administrative links to the state.

Mhike has been invited to attend the CODESRIA Child and Youth Institute in Dakar, Senegal, with the theme: Social Protection and the Citizen Rights of Vulnerable Children in Africa.

Tinashe Nyamunda specialises in African Economic History. His PhD thesis is entitled, “The State and Finance in Rhodesia: A study of the evolution of the monetary system during the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), 1965–1979”.

Under the direction of his primary supervisor, Prof Ian Phimister and his secondary supervisor, Dr Andrew Cohen, four of his papers have been accepted for publication. Nyamunda also received sponsorship from the Rector’s Office for an edited book collection of which he is the leading author. The book focuses on the many aspects of Zimbabwe’s blood diamonds.

Recently, Nyamunda has contributed papers at conferences in Botswana and Scotland and attended a workshop at Lund University in Sweden. He has also received an invitation from Germany and Oxford to present some chapters of his PhD thesis.

“The centre has provided the best working environment any PhD student can dream of,” Nyamunda said. He continued to remark that the opportunities Prof Jonathan Jansen has created opened up immense possibilities for them.

“Given these fruitful experiences in just a year at the university,” Nyamunda said,” imagine what can be accomplished given the resources and environment availed by the institution.” The prospects after his PhD studies looks bright, he concluded, because of the opportunities provided by the UFS.

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