Cape Town – UCT graduand Malibongwe Manono believes you can overcome anything as long as you set yourself a goal to achieve.
At just 31 years of age, Manono, from Khayelitsha, has graduated with a PhD in chemical engineering, which he completed in under four years while simultaneously juggling his role as a lecturer and supervisor to a number of postgraduate students.
Manono said his love for engineering started at a young age when,
during his high school years, he enjoyed maths and the chemistry aspect of physical science.
“Given that I was in a technical high school, having taken subjects such as technical drawing (engineering graphics and design) and woodworking (civil engineering technology), I knew that I would follow an engineering career, if not medicine,” he said.
Manono said that with the support of his physics teacher, Mnoneleli Mananga, at Joe Slovo Engineering High School, he knew he would do well at chemical engineering.
He said one of the challenges he encountered along his journey was finding the right people who would be a direct point of call for advice, “given that I had come from a not so well-off background, one that had no university graduates for me to lean on for advice”, he said.
After completing his two-year
Master’s degree within a year and his
four-year doctorate qualification in three
and a half years, Manono is being hailed by many as a wunderkind.
“My former teachers, mentors and coaches along the way played an essential role and closed that mentor gap. My faith and how I was groomed as a person at home instilled in me the belief that nothing is impossible.
“Personal challenges have never defined me or my path; instead they allowed me to push even harder to succeed, and I think that is (or should be) the story of every black South
African - to look at challenges as a tool or a means to spark the desire to succeed and overcome.”
He said black students did not receive enough support to take on school subjects that would enable them to work in the industry.
He called on black chemical
engineers to do whatever they could to influence and support black students to take on subjects that would allow them admission to programmes such as chemical engineering.
“To me, this award means that I must play my part in helping other young minds to become thinkers,
scientists or engineers who will help build the country.”