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19 March 2019 | Story Dr Cinde Greyling
Dr Mutana and Prof Mukwada
Many people enjoy spending time in the mountainous Drakensberg region. Prof Geofrey Mukwada’s involvement with the UFS Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) sparked an interest in sustainable tourism in the area. Pictured here are Dr Sarudzai Mutana with Prof Mukwada.

Not only is the Qwaqwa Campus situated in a beautiful region – its researchers also contribute to keeping the area pristine. Recent research by Prof Geofrey Mukwada and his PhD student, Dr Sarudzai Mutana, focused on indicators monitoring sustainable tourism development in the Drakensberg region.

Dr Mukwada is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography on the University of the Free State (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus. 

Our majestic mountains are fragile

Many people enjoy spending time in the mountainous Drakensberg region – either as adventure seekers exploring the many trails, or just relaxing and reconnecting with nature. Prof Mukwada’s involvement with the UFS Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) sparked an interest in sustainable tourism in the area. “Mountains are fragile but attractive environments which continue to attract tourists,” he said. “Tourism is one of the major business sectors in the Drakensberg region, with promising growth opportunities and proving to be an anchor of green economy in the future – if practiced correctly.” Unfortunately, the issue of monitoring sustainable tourism has not been widely researched in African mountains. 

According to international standards

“We specifically looked at the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC), which is an international best-practice framework to help destinations monitor and ensure that tourism is developed in a responsible manner,” Prof Mukwada explained. “South Africa’s Manual for Responsible Tourism was designed according to some of the recommendations of the GSTC. But we found that, while the tourism and hospitality operators in the Drakensberg region appreciates the need to monitor and ensure sustainable tourism in the area, there is limited use of indicators as a tool for monitoring.” 

Forward together

There are competing demands between land-use and development practices and alternatives in the region – unless the focus shifts to sustainable practices, the short-term gains could be followed by dire consequences. “We suggest an integrated monitoring of tourism development, with a pro-poor focus that involves more local community leaders. Going forward, we would like to see the industry adopt the indicators proposed in our study.”

News Archive

Collaboration between UFS and Mayo Clinic to revolutionise cancer treatment
2014-06-27



Attending the lecture were, from the left: Dr Chantel Swart, Prof Lodewyk Kock, Prof Debabrata Mukhopadhyay, Prof James du Preez; back: Prof Pieter van Wyk.
Dr Swart, Profs Kock and Du Preez are from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology. Prof Mukhopadhyay is from the Mayo Clinic (US) and Prof Van Wyk is from the Centre for Microscopy at the UFS.
Photo: Supplied
The UFS made a discovery that may have enormous implications for the treatment of diseases in humans.

Since the discovery, the UFS joined forces with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, US, in the fight against cancer.

In this collective effort, UFS researchers would be able to assist the Mayo team to:
• see how treatment in cancer patients is progressing,
• target treatments more effectively,
• reduce dosages in order to make treatment gentler on the patient,
• track the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drugs used, and
• gain an accurate view of how the cancer is being eliminated.

Prof Lodewyk Kock, Outstanding Professor at the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, and his team incidentally created a technique to use argon gas particles for the first time on biological material to slice open cells to look inside.

The team that supported Prof Kock includes Dr Chantel Swart, Khumisho Dithebe (PhD student), Prof Hendrik Swart (Department of Physics) and Prof Pieter van Wyk (Centre for Microscopy).

Prof Debabrata Mukhopadhyay from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, US, got to hear about this breakthrough at the UFS and a collaboration between the two institutions was established.

During a visit to the Bloemfontein Campus, Prof Mukhopadhyay explained novel techniques that make use of gold nanoparticles. These particles attach to chemotherapeutic drugs to selectively target cancer cells – dramatically decreasing the side effects to normal human cells.

For these new drugs (coupled to gold nanoparticles) to be accepted into clinical practice, visual and chemical proof is needed, though. This is where the technique developed by the UFS will play a vital role.

With the technique to look inside cells, the composition, location and metabolism of these drugs can be determined. This will aid in a proof of concept for the application of the nano-drugs. Furthermore, it will enable approval for use of these drugs in clinical trials and eventually could revolutionise cancer treatment as a whole.

For video lectures on the technique used, as well as its findings, follow these links:

1. http://vimeo.com/63643628 (Comic version for school kids)

2. http://vimeo.com/61521401 (Detailed version for fellow scientists)

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