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UFS resumes training of undergraduate students at Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein

10 June 2019 | Story Lacea Loader

The executive committee of the University of the Free State (UFS) has today resumed the training of its undergraduate students in the School of Clinical Medicine at the Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein with immediate effect.

The decision to suspend the training of undergraduate students at the hospital came after the attempted rape of a medical intern last week, as well as the robbery of a medical officer in the parking area of the hospital over the weekend.

This morning, discussions involving the university management, the Head of the Department of Health (DoH) in the Free State Province, the executive committee of the Pelonomi Hospital, and the South African Police Service (SAPS) took place regarding the security situation at the hospital. The DoH provided the university with a security project plan comprising immediate and medium-term interventions, and a commitment to execute the plan as a matter of urgency. The university’s executive management furthermore met with the management of the Faculty of Health Sciences and, based on a safety risk assessment, the university’s executive management agreed that undergraduate students could again fully access the clinical platform at Pelonomi Hospital.

Interventions in the security project plan include the installation of high-mast lights in the precinct of the hospital, reparation of the perimeter fence, security locks, and limiting access to the hospital and the hospital grounds after 20:00 until 06:00. A Venue Operation Centre (VOC) made up of SAPS, institutional security management, and the Community Policing Forum will also be established at the hospital.

“The main focus and concern for the executive management of the university is the safety of its students and staff. We are satisfied with the security plan and the overall interventions committed to by the DoH and will monitor the implementation of these interventions with the management of the Pelonomi Hospital and the DoH. The security interventions will alleviate the situation at the hospital in order for the university to continue sending its undergraduate students there for training,” said Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, during a media briefing today.

Prof Petersen also met with undergraduate students in the Schools of Clinical Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health Professions today to discuss the situation at the hospital. Trauma counselling is provided to undergraduate students and staff and those in need of counselling at the Pelonomi Hospital.

The DoH has furthermore extended its bus service between the clinical platforms in Bloemfontein to students in need of transport of the School of Clinical Medicine according to time slots as from the beginning of the second semester. This service will ultimately be extended to undergraduate students in the Schools of Nursing and Allied Health Professions. “We will also look into further transport solutions for the longer term for our students,” said Prof Petersen.

Undergraduate students from the university’s Schools of Clinical Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health Professions are trained on the clinical platforms in Bloemfontein – these include the Pelonomi Hospital, Universitas Hospital, National Hospital, the Mangaung University Community Partnership Programme (MUCPP), and the Free State Psychiatric Complex.

Although these clinical training platforms are under the jurisdiction of the DoH in the Free State Province, they form a critical part of the training of undergraduate students in the university’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Staff on the joint establishment of the UFS and the DoH also work at hospitals on the clinical platforms.

Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Department of Communication and Marketing)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

Africa the birthplace of mathematics, says Prof Atangana

2017-11-17

Prof Abdon Atangana from the UFS Institute for Groundwater Studies.
Photo: Supplied

Prof Abdon Atangana from the Institute for Groundwater Studies at the University of the Free State recently received the African Award of Applied Mathematics during the International conference "African’s Days of Applied Mathematics" that was held in Errachidia, Morocco. Prof Atangana delivered the opening speech with the title "Africa was a temple of knowledge before: What happened?” The focus of the conference was to offer a forum for the promotion of mathematics and its applications in African countries.

When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture to be disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.

Africa is home to the world’s earliest known use of measuring and calculation. Thousands of years ago Africans were using numerals, algebra and geometry in daily life. “Our continent is the birthplace of both basic and advanced mathematics,” said Prof Atangana.

Africa attracted a series of immigrants who spread knowledge from this continent to the rest of the world.

Measuring and counting
In one of his examples of African mathematics knowledge Prof Atangana referred to the oldest mathematical instrument as the Lebombo bone, a baboon fibula used as a measuring instrument, which was named after the Lebombo Mountains of Swaziland. The world’s oldest evidence of advanced mathematics was also a baboon fibula that was discovered in present-day Democratic Republic of Congo.

Another example he used is the manuscripts in the libraries of the Sankoré University, one of the world’s oldest tertiary institutions. This university in Timbuktu, Mali, is full of manuscripts mainly written in Ajami in the 1200s AD. “When Europeans and Western Asians began visiting and colonising Mali between the 1300s and 1800s, Malians hid the manuscripts in basements, attics and underground, fearing destruction or theft by foreigners. This was certainly a good idea, given the Europeans' history of destroying texts in Kemet and other areas of the continent. Many of the scripts were mathematical and astronomical in nature. In recent years, as many as 700 000 scripts have been rediscovered and attest to the continuous knowledge of advanced mathematics and science in Africa well before European colonisation.

Fractal geometry
“One of Africa’s major achievements was the advanced knowledge of fractal geometry. This knowledge is found in a wide aspect of Africa life: from art, social design structures, architecture, to games, trade and divination systems.

“The binary numeral system was also widely known through Africa before it was known throughout much of the world. There is a theory that it could have influenced Western geometry, which led to the development of digital computers,” he said.

“Can Africa rise again?” Prof Atangana believes it can.

He concluded with a plea to fellow African researchers to do research that will build towards a new Africa.

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