A short general history of the MRC

Motivation, mining - and research
It has been stated that "One of the compelling reasons for the establishment of the SAIMR was the high incidence of serious illnesses among the Bantu mine workers" (SESA Vol. Vll, p. 286a), which suggests a narrow economic rather than a purely humanitarian reason for research. To a large extent, it may be argued, early medical research was established to keep the mines in production, and not merely to protect the population of the Witwatersrand against serious tropical diseases. Mining connections do not detract from the scientific value or the intellectual achievement of the research, but imply a motivational aspect that, through apartheid, inevitably affected not merely research but all aspects of South African life.

Research in which the SAIMR played a leading part demonstrated that pneumococci could be differentiated into at least four groups, and resulted in the subsequent development of pneumococcal vaccine. The transmission cycle of plague was determined, and SAIMR workers identified the two species of anopheles mosquito (A. gambiae and A. funestus) principally responsible for the transmission of malaria. Widespread use in the 1940s of the then new insecticide, DDT, achieved notable success, but after several decades of quiescence, malaria has again emerged in epidemic form.

Accelerated scientific and industrial development during the Second World War (1939 - 1945) led to intensified research in many fields and, in fact, followed an energetic burst of medical research at the University of Cape Town. In 1944 the South African Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, General Jan Smuts, requested Dr (later Sir) Basil Schonland, first director of the Bernard Price Institute for Geophysical Research at the University of the Witwatersrand, to create the legislative basis for scientific research. Given the ready exchange of information among Allied countries and especially those of the British Commonwealth, Schonland was quickly able to adapt what he regarded as the most suitable features from the legislation governing research in several countries, and the Scientific Research Council Act was promulgated in 1945.

The Act established the principle of overall government control, but left practical administration under the control of a council of nine (later 12) members. Members were appointed by the government on the basis of their "personal prestige and scientific achievements" in universities, the public service and industry. Fully fledged universities at that time were Cape Town, Stellenbosch, the Witwatersrand and Pretoria. As first president of the new council Schonland built, in a little over two years, an organisation "which was the envy of the rest of the Commonwealth". (DSAB Vol. V, p. 690b)