Certificate Celebrating a Centenary of Organised Pharmacy in South Africa.

The certificate hereunder was issued to delegates at the 1985 Annual General Meeting in 1985 of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa. The emblem of the PSSA appears below the date on the original in my possession.

1885- 1985
Organized Pharmacy in South Africa
Georganiseerde Apteekwese i n Suid Afrika

 

 

 

 

 

 

CENTENARY OF ORGANIZED PHARMACY IN SOUTH AFRICA

1985 marks the centenary of continuous organized pharmacy in South Africa. Since the first meeting in King William's Town on 13th June 1985, professional pharmaceutical organizations in this country developed steadily.

 The first society ran into immediate controversy because a rival Cape Town-based organization had also been founded. Only after much debate and some acrimony a modicum of unity was achieved.

Organized pharmacy has always mirrored its practitioners, particularly those in the numerically superior retail sector. Generally, pharmacists and their organizations are conservative, fiercely independent and with a tendency to resist change. However, in crises organized pharmacy has often shown a surprising ability to act promptly on the right decisions.

Before the formation of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa in 1946, national decisions were taken by a loose federation of regional societies.

Today the profession in South Africa has 7000 practitioners engaged in a wide spectrum of pharmaceutical activity