Page 159 - A Widening Idea of Health and Health Research - The South African Medical Research Council from Creation to COVID

A Widening Idea of Health: The SAMRC from Creation to Covid

54 MRC News, 33, 4 (August 2002), p. 2; email from Professor Wally Prozesky, 3 September 2020.
55 MRC News, 24, 4 (September 1993), p. 1.
56 MRC, AR 1993, p. 7.
57 MRC, Strongroom A119, boxfile ‘Audit (External)’: Report of the Auditor-General on Miscellaneous
Accounts for 1992–93 [RP 162-93]: Evidence before Joint Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 7
September 1994, p. 6.
58 MRC News, 25, 3 (July 1994), p. 6.
59 Cited in R. Fox, ‘What Future for South African Medical Research?’, The Lancet, 349, 9064 (24 May
1997), p. 1543.
60 MRC, AR 1993, p. 7.
61 O. W. Prozesky, ‘From Science Council to Health and Medical Research Organisation: 25 Years of MRC
History’, South African Medical Journal, 84, 7 (July 1994), p. 375 (editorial).
62 South Africa, Act 58 of 1991, clause 3. Compare this wording with that of the original founding Act in
1969 – see chapter 1, note 19.
63 Republic of South Africa, Debates of Parliament (Hansard), vol. 23, 22 February 1991, col. 1526.
64 Republic of South Africa, Debates of Parliament (Hansard), vol. 23, 22 February 1991, col. 1528.
65 As a marker of the change in mindset that this represented, it is worth noting that just four years earlier,
Brink had been arguing for similar research but because of the threat malaria posed to South African
Defence Force soldiers on the country’s borders (The Citizen, 14 January 1988, p. 3).
66 MRC, AR 1986, p. vi.
67 MRC, AR 1991, p. 3.

Chapter 4. Positively into the New South Africa: The MRC, 1995–2012
1 Cited in L. Gentle, ‘History of the MRC’ (Unpublished digital report, MRC, 2019), p. 41.
2 MRC Archives, Agenda for MRC Board meeting, 3 March 1995, attachment: Minutes of meeting of
MRC Board, 17 February 1995, p. 77.
3 Email from anonymous Board member to author, 25 March 2021.
4 Interview with Professor Alan Aderem, 3 February 2022.
5 Interview with Dr Niresh Bhagwandin, 15 March 2022.
6 Interview with Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, 8 October 2020.
7 Email from Dr Wally Prozesky, 1 September 2020.
8 This responsibility for baseline funding – but not for the oversight of research priorities and performance
management – remained with the DACST and its successor, the Department of Science and Technology,
until 2005 when it reverted to the renamed National Department of Health because of the administrative
confusion caused by the blurring of boundaries between these two government departments.
9 Interview with Dr Tony Mbewu, 13 October 2020.
10 Cited in MRC, SETI Review 2001 (MRC, Tygerberg, 2001), p. 2.
11 Sowetan, 22 September 1999, p. 2.
12 MRC, Strongroom A119, boxfile ‘Employment Equity’: Human Resources – Appointment Document
(Strictly Confidential), Project Administrator, Business Development Division (Parow), 13 February
2004. The guidelines went on to make clear that where ‘more than one shortlisted candidate displays
the competence and potential to successfully perform the duties of the vacant job, candidates of the
designated groups should be given preference in the following order: Disabled female, Disabled male,
African female, African male, Indian female, Indian male, Coloured female, Coloured male, White female,
White male’.
13 MRC, AR 1993, p. 94.
14 Cited in interview with anonymous MRC staffer, 14 June 2022.
15 ‘Dr Makgoba’ in MRC News, 33, 4 (August 2002), p. 3.

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