Letago Kgomoeswana credits her grandparents for her love of indigenous knowledge and the environment.
Kgomoeswana is the winner of FameLab SA 2021 competition – a contest where top young scientists in SA come together to share their inspiring research stories. The winner is chosen to represent SA on an international stage hosted at the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK next month.
She will meet with scientists from around the world where she will share her insights into how SA indigenous farmers in Limpopo are braving the harsh effects of climate change.
Kgomoeswana, 24, went up against 300 young scientists from across the country to emerge as the winner.
“I'm looking at the impact of climate change on smallholder farmers in the Mopani district like Tzaneen and Phalaborwa [in Limpopo]," she said.
“More importantly, I wanted to find out how the farmers are reacting to climate change using indigenous knowledge. Since climate change has started it's all been about prescribed knowledge and what scientific knowledge is saying, what is policy saying and all of this comes from the United Nations and higher ups and don’t meet the needs of the people. So, what are the smaller farmers doing to sustain their livelihood?”
Kgomoeswana completed a bachelor of science in environmental science and geography and a honours in geography at Rhodes University. She is now completing her master's in environmental geography at North West University.
Kgomoeswana said coming from a farming family in Polokwane, and taking part in the FameLab workshops, made her realise how important it is for science to be beneficial for people on the ground and to be communicated in a way that is easy for all to understand.
“I'm humbled, I had great competitors from 25 institutions and to be chosen as someone who can champion SA on a global stage there is nothing more humbling… it's an opportunity for me to push for women in Stem [science, technology, engineering, mathematics], especially young black women who are doing great things, as a young black girl from Limpopo,” she said.
Zakithi Mkhize, who took part in the competition, said her work at the sub-Saharan African Network for TB and HIV Research led to her beating other scientists to land a shot at the final.
Mkhize, 28, is one of the researchers from across the world working on finding a cure for HIV which has claimed millions of lives.
“I have investigated the genetic variation of an HIV gene called Tat, which plays an important role in HIV replication. We have found that a particular mutation, TatP21A, was responsible for lower viral loads in patients infected with HIV. I have investigated the possible mechanisms which result in these lower viral loads in infected patients,” she said.
Mkhize completed a bachelor of science majoring in microbiology and genetics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and is completing the third year of her PhD in virology.
“I have always been interested in medical research, so in my honours I did microbiology and then I went to do a master's degree in medical science which I graduated cum laude in,” she said.
The young scientist said living in SA made her conscious of the need to work in the HIV/Aids health space.
“It's something that I feel that every South African is affected by. Whether a family member close or far has had it and it's always been a fascination for me on why do we not have a cure when it's such a problem in our country. In Africa we carry 70% of the total population that is infected with HIV, in the entire world we carry this,” she said.
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