ONDERSTEPOORT, South Africa’s most prestigious veterinary science research institution, is facing “total collapse” in the wake of the mass departure of leading scientists.
In the past year the world-renowned institute has suffered the loss of about 200 years of almost irreplaceable experience. Most senior researchers have left because of higher salaries offered overseas and in the private sector.
The work carried out by veterinary laboratories is essential for agriculture, food security and human health, especially in exporting countries such as South Africa.
Central to the loss of these experts is that the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) is unable to pay salaries that compete on the global market.
But sources say the real issues are demotivation of the staff as a result of mismanagement, micro-management, lack of transparency and the ARC’s inability to make decisions.
Onderstepoort has been the flagship of South African veterinary science research since 1908 and is one of the 13 institutions that fall under the central office of the ARC.
Sources say that for the 13 institutes the ARC has only 93 researchers with PhD qualifications, and that 62 PhD qualified researchers have left in the past year.
The Mail & Guardian first reported on the exodus in January last year when key veterinary experts – including the country’s leading researcher on foot and mouth disease – left the institute due to severe budgetary constraints and poor career prospects.
The heads of at least four departments have resigned and several departments have closed, including the departments of information technology, bacterial vaccine development, ostrich diseases and marketing. The pathology and entomology departments face imminent closure. This means research into animal deaths will not take place.
The director of research, an internationally recognised expert on heartwater disease, took early retirement in 2000 and has not been replaced. The head of the rabies unit was forced to resign because he was not a South African citizen. There have also been drastic losses of middle-level researchers with special expertise.
“No organisation can sustain this level of losses for long without total collapse, and this is what faces the institute,” says a researcher working at Onderstepoort.
“The problems are only partly related to financial cutbacks; they also stem from the centralised management style of the ARC, which results in the demotivation of all staff,” says another researcher. This centralisation of power has resulted in the directors of the institutes having almost no control over their organisations.
The ARC confirmed that researchers have left because of better opportunities overseas. “Provision has been made for all these heads of department’s posts to be filled in this financial year. The turnover of staff compares to market trends,” says Steven Cornelius, director of ARC-Onderstepoort.
Cornelius says there has been a severe decline in the parliamentary grant allocation. “This constraint meant that the ARC had to curtail its operational and personnel expenditure. There was an 8% salary increase across the board.”
He says the budget allocation from the parliamentary grant has averaged over the past three years at about R262-million a year, but this is not sufficient to cover the annual personnel costs, which averaged about R310-million.
Dr Nthoana Tau-Mzamane, president of the ARC, has come under attack by key players in the agricultural industry for her “medieval” management style. In the April edition of Landbouweekblad it is reported that Tau-Mzamane failed to meet key players in the industry after numerous requests, but suddenly organised meetings once reports of her managing style hit the headlines.
“The tragedy is that the ARC, which is mandated with maintaining the scientific expertise needed to support the country’s agriculture, is totally unmoved by the scale and importance of the losses. In fact, ARC management is in denial that there is any problem,” says a researcher.
“This [situation] cannot be maintained under the current system where administration and bureaucratic issues are given preference over research and scientific output. You cannot maintain a high scientific standing if you are not rewarding the individuals that are delivering precisely that … high-quality science,” says a former researcher.
Dr Mary-Louise Penrith, a former head of pathology, said she left in February, after 101/2 years at the institution, to work in Mozambique. “I left because I knew I could no longer make a difference. We were losing too many people, and the burden of working under those conditions was too great, in particular the fear that we could not deliver what the clients were paying for.”
Penrith eventually resigned because of the council’s failure to renew contracts of two valuable staff members because they were foreigners.
“Although the contracts were eventually renewed … the terms of the contracts finally offered were insulting.
“Expertise, contrary to some popular ideas, is not acquired via a year’s mentorship by an expert who is then encouraged to depart. Breaking Onderstepoort down can be accomplished within a year or two, because experts have a market elsewhere, as do bright young people who could be the experts of the future. Building it up again will take at least the 90-plus years of its present existence,” says Penrith.
Affirmative action has also resulted in the drain of expertise. “You cannot occupy a management position in an organisation in which you can offer no hope of promotion to extremely bright and dedicated young scientists if they happen to be white, while knowing that they are in fact at the present time irreplaceable,” says Penrith.
But Cornelius says employees are subject to the same performance management system. “It is the ARC’s intention to retain expertise, but at the same time to comply with government policies. It is not always that easy because of the financial constraints.”
Henriette Macmillan, an immunologist, left Onderstepoort because the opportunities for young scientists are diminishing. “If people keep on leaving then Onderstepoort won’t be able to compete for grants and they won’t be able to train students,” she says.
Cornelius says: “If we are faced with the continued loss of expertise, South Africa will lose credibility and recognition. It is not only the ARC’s responsibility to prevent this from happening.” He says veterinarians should be required to do community service to secure the veterinary environment.
Expertise lost
* Dr Frank Vreede, a molecular genetics expert, is now in Europe. He is specialising in controlling gene expression by manipulating animal responses to vaccination to optimise immunity.
* Dr Mandy Bastos, a molecular epidemiologist, specialising in foot and mouth disease. She had played a large part for tracing the origin of the disease.
* Dr Kelly Brayton, molecular parasitology expert, working on vaccine development is in Washington. She had trained in the techniques needed for parasite whole genome sequencing.
* Dr Etienne de Villiers, a bio-informatics expert, now works in Nairobi. Bio-informaticians are essential computer experts who analyse the masses of genome sequencing data.
* Nico Gunter and Henriette Macmillan, both cellular immunologists, working on vaccine development. They worked on understanding how animals control infections with parasites that live inside the animal’s cells.
* Dr Mary-Louise Penrith (see article).
* Dr Leon Prozesky, veterinary pathologist and former head of pathology, has experience of performing post-mortem diagnoses of tropical diseases.
* Dr Theo de Waal, veterinary parasitologist. Previous head of parasitology department, now works in the United Kingdom. Expertise in tropical parasites of domestic animals.
* Dr Albie van Dijk, a virologist and previous head of biochemistry department, now works in Australia. He has developed vaccines against tropical viral diseases such as African horse sickness and bluetongue.
* Dr Gavin Thomson, Internationally recognised expert in foot and mouth disease and rabies. Previous director of Onderstepoort, he now works in Nairobi and is an international consultant on foot and mouth disease.
* Dr Durr Bezuidenhout, an expert in heartwater disease. Previous director of research who took early retirement. Heartwater disease is a tick-borne disease and killer of cattle, sheep and goats.
* Dr Janusz Paweska, previous head of the virology department, with experience in tropical virological diseases of animals and man. He is a consultant on Ebola fever in Central Africa.
* Dr Jan du Preez, the previous head of the technology transfer department, which was closed.