WELCOME TO NAS

Meet Dr Majika Jean Claude (JC) Malela who started his career at the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (NAS) on 6 January 2021.

Find out more about him:

What do you do at NAS? 
I am a senior lecturer in the Department of Statistics and responsible for teaching and assessment of both undergraduate and postgraduate students. I also have the responsibility to supervise postgraduate students including honours, master’s and doctoral students. My principal research interest includes Statistical Process Control/ Quality Control, Nonparametric Methods and Statistical Inference.

As a new staff member, what stands out for you from UP and NAS?
What stands out about UP and NAS for me is the high quality of the tuition and research outputs as well as the full support rendered to its staff and students. This has allowed UP to be one of the highest-ranked universities in the world. All these motivate me to: (i) work at the best of my ability to make sure the University keeps on shining and (ii) become an established academic.

What qualities do you think a good employee should have to be successful?
A good employee should have a vision aligning with the goals of the organization. Moreover, he must be ambitious, honest, informed, mindful, selfless, able to work independently (especially in this difficult time of the pandemic) and in a team in order to contribute to the success of the organisation.

What is your life philosophy? What do you believe in?
To help others to discover themselves and become the best of what they are intended to be. I believe that anything is possible.

Where were you previously employed?
I was a senior lecturer in the Department of Statistics at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and at the same time part-time senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) for several years.