August 9 is South African Women's Day, and the month of August celebrates South African Women. For this month the Department speaks to three of our excepting female students from each of our academic programs: Zeenat from Geography & Environmental Science, Mpho from Geoinformatics, and Bhavani from Meteorology. Here, we find out a bit more of Mpho Sadiki, who is currently enrolled in her PhD Geoinformatics.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself.

A: My name is Maleho Mpho Sadiki, but I usually go by Mpho. I am from Ha-Manavhela, Ha-Kutama just outside Louis Trichardt in Limpopo. Thanks to the great opportunities that the Sumbandila Scholarship Trust offers high school students in rural Venda, I was able to attend one of the Best High Schools in the province, Ridgeway College, where I wrote both IGCSEs (Grade 10) and AS Levels (Grade 12).

Q: Why did you choose Geoinformatics?

A: My studying Geoinformatics was completely unexpected. In the 11^th grade, when we had to decide what we wanted to pursue at university, I had no idea. Everyone around me knew what they wanted, be it Medicine, Engineering or Accounting. I knew I wanted to study at the University of Pretoria because my older sister was there, so I went through their prospectus, and when I read the description for Geoinformatics, it just resonated with me. I have enjoyed studying Geoinformatics from my first year and to this day, I cannot imagine having studied anything else.

After my undergraduate degree, I knew I had to learn more, so I applied for my Honours. In that process, I also applied for an opportunity to partake in a student exchange in Germany, which I was awarded. I spent six months in Germany, delaying my Honours but I did not care at all because I got to learn so much. When I returned, I started tutoring and found a new love, teaching. And thanks to Mrs Erika Pretorius and Dr Christel Hansen, I got many opportunities to tutor and teach students. After my Honours (which took two years), I once again made no conscious effort to get a job because I wanted to learn even more. So, I registered for my Masters. Due to Covid19, I had to change my approach to the research quite late but I loved the challenge and I managed to complete it on time. My two older sisters are also university graduates in Environmental Sciences and Industrial Engineering respectively. However, I am the first to graduate with an Honours and Masters degree, and now registered for a PhD.

Q: Tell us something unique about yourself.

A: There are very few things I am good at and love as much as I love music. I have been singing for as long as I can remember. If I am not singing, I am listening to music. I probably have 500 recordings of myself singing on my phone. That is how much I love it.

Q: What or who inspires you?

A: My sisters and I were raised by a single father so everything I do is to make him proud. My father and sisters have loved, supported, and worked hard to raise, educate, and nurture me, and I know I am fortunate to have them. They have an unreasonable amount of faith in me, supporting everything I want to do without a doubt. So, their love and support motivate me to keep going in life.

Q:  What made you the excellent student and remrkable woman you are today?

A: I always approach my learning with the aim of figuring out what that something I am trying to learn is. I find that when you find the logic behind something, you can expand that in every which direction you wish. I learnt this early in high school and I took that all the way through to university. To this day, I try my best to understand why something is the way it is so I can manipulate it given whatever situation. It might not be perfect, but I think it beats sitting and cramming for hours only to forget at a later stage.

I also should thank Ridgeway College for providing me with such a solid foundation that university was both an interesting and manageable challenge.

I am now busy with my PhD while I work full-time. When I started my PhD, I thought I would do it full-time without working but I knew it would be more years before it was completed so I wanted to start my career, which I want to ultimately be an academic career. So, I started looking for positions at research institutions, mostly universities. And that is how I landed my current role as a research coordinator working part of the African Agri-food Knowledge Transfer Partnership (AAKTP) Scheme, which is a new internationalised model of Innovate UK’s (https://www.ukri.org) long-standing and hugely successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme (https://www.ktp-uk.org), which aims to develop opportunities to deliver innovation expertise across additional sectors in Africa and beyond. The AAKTP is a four-way partnership between two academic institutes (Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Johannesburg), an African business partner (GeoSpace International), and an African graduate as a KTP associate employed by the University of Johannesburg (myself).

Working and studying at the same time is a monumental effort that might feel unattainable at times, but I love and enjoy both.  I also have a ton of support from my family, friends, and supervisors. So, while I do question how I will finish my PhD with full-time employment, I know that the people around me and my desire to become an academic will push me to the finish line, however long that might take.

For more on Mpho, please click on the links below:

• Presenting her Honours project at the 2019 SAAG Biennial Conference
• Recipient of the best Honours presentation at the 2019 Sansa workshop