health and medical sciences 7
H E A L T H A N D M E D I C A L S C I E N C E S
managed is still suitable in a rapidly chang- management”. The MRC responded to this
ing South Africa’. The futile efforts at estab- change in the research environment by
lishing international links (colloquia were making major changes to its research pro-
held with Taiwanese and Israeli scientists), grammes with “greater stress on communi-
and a recognition that the government’s ty health research in an attempt to improve
policies, including its influx control policy, the quality of life of all population groups
were failing, saw the creation of the Centre in South Africa”. For the first time, the MRC
for Epidemiological Research in Southern annual report mentions the evaluation of
Africa (CERSA), the main aim of which was health care as a research highlight, reflect-
to study the interaction between urbanisa- ing a new emphasis on the relevance of re-
tion and health. (The prime purpose of the search to the provision of health services, in
decades-old influx control policy had been a changing discourse in health and medical
to restrict the movement of black people sciences.
from rural areas to the cities; decades of
forced removals from urban to impover- Significantly, the MRC experienced an up-
ished rural labour reserves and the crimi- surge in international contacts following
nalisation of the process of rural-to-urban the unbanning of liberation organisations
migration had led to untenable population in 1990. The academic boycott was relaxed,
pressure in the Bantustans, which were cre- and opportunities for communication and
ated as quasi-independent mini-states for scientific exchange mushroomed. South Af-
black South Africans). The MRC also refor- rican scientific collaboration was no longer
mulated its mission statement to reflect its limited to Taiwan and Israel, and visiting
role as providing the research base for the scientists to the country increased dra-
improvement of the health of all South Afri- matically. This was accompanied partly by
cans. Research highlights in that year were the formation of bilateral links with some
work on air and water pollution, parasitic African countries. In the words of the MRC
diseases in communities, infectious diseas- President in the 1992 annual report: “It now
es in developing communities, urbanisa- only needs a political settlement here to
tion and health, the importance of exercise, enable us to fully develop and implement
heart attacks and heart disease, diet and our research development programmes
cardiovascular disease, organ transplants, with our neighbouring countries as our full
nutrition in developing communities, and partners for the benefit of all the people
trauma, a far cry from the disease- and labo- of Africa.” This was a dramatic shift indeed!
ratory-oriented rubrics cited earlier. By 1991, the Fogarty International Centre
of the National Institutes of Health in the
The impact of political change was further United States provided six postdoctoral
highlighted in the MRC President’s report bursaries to South Africans, premised on a
the following year (1990), thus: “………. selection process that was openly affirma-
fast changes in political, economic and tive in character.
social spheres of South African life caused
major demands on research practice and The early nineties also saw the establish-
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