Speaking under the topic: ‘My Brother’s Keeper? A Social Realist Understanding of Mentorship and Postgraduate Supervision during the Pandemic’, Professor Mahlomaholo said mentoring of students, using the realist social theory, a caring approach Is important
during COVID-19.

“We have to take a keen interest in our students to make sure that they succeed during this trying times of the pandemic, where everything has become upside down. Our way of doing things has been interrupted, for example, supervision normally would have been a very pleasant process where we interact with communities of researchers over a coffee, talking amongst ourselves about our involvement and the research processes. But those opportunities are gone as we have to do things remotely.”

Professor Mahlomaholo explains that effective postgraduate supervision enables students to acquire an academic identity. The role of the supervisors or mentors is to assist students to activate their abilities and argentic power within them, so that they become responsible. 

“Our role as supervisors or mentors is to lift students, support the and nurture their abilities. It is a question of how we initiate them to have an academic identity. The responsibility of the supervisor or mentor is to develop the mentees, transform them to becoming social actors." 

He added that well-mentored students become good social actors in their respective fields and within their communities. 

“When we engage into the process of supervision or mentorship, it is not because we want a student to achieve 50% or 100%. The ultimate objective is to craft them to become social actors, that they become people who are going to take leadership roles.” 

Critical Knowledge and Thinking
Professor Mahlomaholo further added that mentees should be able to support students to demonstrate expertise and critical knowledge in a field of their practice. 

“The ultimate objective is to craft students to become a social actors. They should have the ability to conceptualise new research initiative and create new knowledge of the practice. These are the people that are going to provide literacy as graduates of particular institution. The process of postgraduate supervision enables students to acquire an academic identity from being natural persons to ultimately becoming social actors,” he added.

“A mentor can support their student to demonstrate the ability to scholarly debate around theories of knowledge and processes. Mentees should be left with knowledge production in an area of practice, for an example a mentor of research can support their students to demonstrate the ability to develop new methods, new techniques and other processes.” 

He mentioned that traditionally older people usually mentor the younger ones but the roles can be reversed because ultimately mentorship is about sharing knowledge and experience. 

“Mentors do not necessarily have to be more senior than the people they mentor. What matters is that mentors have experience and the other party has something to learn from another. Some universities, for example, have reversed mentoring programs, where younger employees are mentoring older ones because they are using social technology.” 

Professor Mahlomaholo noted that research in South Africa shows that far fewer students who enrol for their Master's let alone PhDs managed to graduate, which leaves the assumption that this is due to the quality of mentorship at postgraduate research and the supervision level. 

“We focus mainly on one or two of the modalities and to a lesser extent emotion. When we supervise or mentor students, we tend to enable our students to understand intellectually the subject matter, but we forget that we are dealing with the total person who's not only limited to the cognitive and affective,” he adds.

“So for us to be able to reach to them, we need to be focusing on the multiple of modalities. We need to provide support at every little level. Now the realist social theory recalls that for mentorship to be meaningful and effective, it would seem that recognizing the value of and building on all these modalities together should be the starting point.” 

Cultivating Sustainable Development Goals
In closing Professor Mahlomaholo said that a mentor’s duties includes developing and managing the mentoring relationship, sponsoring the mental developmental activities, modelling effective leadership behaviour, guiding and counselling, teaching, motivating, and inspiring the mentee. 

“Research has consistently found mentored individuals to be more satisfied and committed to the progression that meant individual whether the making that mentoring does make a difference. And furthermore, mentored individuals tend to earn higher performance evaluations, higher salaries as a career progress.

“Non mentored individuals can also benefit from a successful mentoring relationship by deriving satisfaction from helping to develop the next generation of leaders and feel rejuvenated in their own career development. They earn how to use new technologies, or becoming aware of issues, methods or perspective that are important to their field,” he said.

He further added the Sustainable Development Goals have been cascaded into the African agenda, which is about collaborative efforts of lifting those that are still beginning. 

“The ultimate intention is that the student who is being mentored, becomes an independent person who can create or initiate transformation. Mentorship is about the cultivation of academic and mature citizens of a democracy. When we mentor and support our postgraduate students, we create a critical mass of people that will enable the whole of humanity to move forward in terms of economic sustainability, in an environmentally sustainable manner, towards sustainable development." 

Professor Mahlomaholo also added that the aim of mentoring is lifting of those who are still beginning so that they become valuable assets and make our continent one of the respected continents in the world. 

“Collectively, all of us are making our continent one of the respected in the world. If we are to sustain the knowledge base of our country and keep our country as competitive, mentoring and support to postgraduate students is key to transformation and change in the world.” 

@ Story by Lisa Thabethe. Pictures supplied.

What makes Mdhluvu's MSc research unique is that in South Africa crocodile meat is mainly used for tail meat, and skin export, meaning other parts are of no use, therefore, crocodile farmers are running at a loss. Processing of crocodile meat in fish feed will create job opportunities for people, and allow more farmers to venture into fish farming. 

“By 2050 the world human population is expected to reach 9 billion, and the demand for dietary fish protein is expected to skyrocket. For decades, wild captured fish stocks have been the main fish protein source for humans but unfortunately, the stocks are running dry, the aquatic biodiversity has changed due to climate change and over fishing,” says Mdhluvu. 

"Researchers across the world have been looking for a protein source rich enough to replace fishmeal in a fish diet. With increased demand in plant-based protein, the prices have become too high, while other sources of protein, such as mopane worms, black soldier fly larvae and fermented feather meal have been used with mixed results,” she adds. 

“The results obtained from my research showed that crocodile meat can replace fishmeal in fish diets up to 50% without having a detrimental effect. It also revealed, however, that the crocodile meat meal lacks poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), especially n-3 and n-6, hence reduced growth performance in fish. These PUFA are important for humans, since fish is an important food source that seems to reduce heart disease incidences due to its high levels of PUFA. The PUFA composition is one of the most significant attributes of fish for human nutrition, which is why this finding is concerning.”

Mdhluvu explains that after noticing that crocodile meat is rich in protein and can replace fishmeal in fish diet but is lacking PUFA, she recommend the use of supplemental PUFA sources such as microalgae oil, which could mitigate the negative impact of feeding crocodile meat meal on feed utilization, growth performance, and n-3 long chain PUFA concentration in the kob.

"My MSc research provides the first insights into the use of crocodile meat for fish diets, and showing potential to replace fishmeal in fish, however, it will take a few trials and errors for it to reach fishmeal level.”

Aquaculture in South Africa is still at the developmental stage, with only a few universities in South Africa offering courses on the subject. UMP offers fish studies under agricultural science. Because fishmeal is so expensive, few people explore fish farming in South Africa at the moment. Small scale farmers can only try farming with tilapia, or African catfish but even then not everyone is open to the idea of fish farming. Only a few people are taking the route of fish nutrition, or fish studies, which is why it is still considered a scarce skill.

“I love animals in general, so working with them is a dream come true. Working with fish is a different sphere and absolutely fascinating. The adrenaline rush is what brings me back to them again. I believe in going for unchartered places, places we fear, or believe it belongs to a certain group people, I want to go there, and be the first to pave a way for others. The path I am taking is channelling me into being an animal nutritionist, because not only will I be able to focus on formulating diets for fish but through research I can do it for other animals, using different feed ingredients. However, for now I am focusing on carnivorous fish such as Dusky kob. The fish nutrition field, I believe, will open doors for me.”

Mdhluvu is extending her skills and has registered with the University of Bologna in Italy for a course in Sustainable Development and One Health, which focuses on human, animal and environment interactions. 

“As an aspiring animal nutritionist, it is of key importance that the diets we create for the farmed animals do not have any detrimental effect on humans and the environment. Especially in fish, what they consume can be also found in the fish fillet which will be consumed by humans, which means it can affect human health. Therefore, it is important to take note of such. The course explored this effect in great detail,” she adds. 

“It was a real eye opener, working with animals and the environment as my career moves forward, the One Health approach should always be at the back of my mind. I need to remember that the diet I create needs to be sustainable, it must not harm my animals, humans and the environment. After all, we really are what we eat.”

Mdhluvu is planning to pursue her PhD in 2022. “Nothing would make me happier than walking across that stage with my red graduation gown and thanking everyone who has helped me in my journey. With that said, I still have a long way to go but I do believe I will make it and become a successful fish nutritionist.”

@ Story by Cleopatra Makhaga. Pictures supplied.

UMP Head of School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Professor Daniel Parker, who says the agreement seeks to fulfil the university’s mandate to grow researchers and academics in the country, facilitated the partnership. He shares how the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) came about, what its objectives are, and how both parties will be benefitting from the collaboration. 

How did the MoU come about?
Towards the end of last year Dr Dave Thompson from SAEON contacted me about the possibility of a collaboration between the two institutions. Being the first comprehensive university in Mpumalanga, UMP is already involved in biological and environmental research. We opened up the dialogue to investigate the potential overlap and areas of collaboration in which we could both benefit. The main objective of this partner is to use each other’s strengths to our collective advantage, working together to find research solutions. 

Students will be playing a major role in this collaboration, please elaborate?
We want to involve students as much as possible so that we may grow the next cohort of researchers and academics in the country. This is an important objective for both parties. While we have the students, SAEON has access to data, study sites and other invaluable platforms. In bringing these assets together, we are hoping to contribute to the intellectual transformation of our students, while they in turn, will be giving back to the community through their research. 

What is the proposed duration of the partnership?
The MoU was signed in April this year and currently has a projected duration of five years. At the moment we have a very broad agreement and will share what we can in terms of our research infrastructure and priorities. This leaves us open to redefine the relationship and finetune it as we progress. We are hoping researchers with similar interests will start talking to each other and that common ground can be found from where we will grow together. 

What is at the crux of this collaboration?
In essence it is a mutually beneficial partnership in which both agencies have access to assets from which the other may derive some benefit. It’s a partnership in which the one needs the other to succeed. For example, we have access to students, laboratories and staff. SAEON has access to innumerable assets like research study sites, data and expertise. In this relationship, success for one, is success for all.

What areas do you feel UMP will benefit from most through this partnership?
One of SAEON’s mandates is the monitoring of valuable research sites across the country. They have access to the sites as well as data from those sites. These are invaluable areas like the Savanna Biodome, and various marine and freshwater systems, to name a few. With the monitoring of these core areas, over the last 15 years they have collected very valuable data, and methods of data collection, and come with people who are expertly trained and experienced in their respective fields. This is an incredibly valuable gain for our students. 

In closing, it’s also not just about SAEON and UMP and how we will benefit from this collaboration. In this field in particular, there is not much you can achieve on your own. In the long run, environmental and wildlife research will also grow as a whole and reap rewards from this partnership. 

@ Story Cleopatra Makhaga. Pictures supplied.

Dr Tsvakirai PhD thesis: Essays on Climate Change adaptable capacity measurement, trade-offs and benefits in South Africa’s peach and nectarine fresh fruit trade, investigates the balance between climate change adaptation and consumer demands. The study's results confirms that there is largely a trade-off between meeting consumer's demands and sustainable production. It also determined that there were unexplored market opportunities that existed that utilised the synergy between the two phenomena.

Her study is cited as the first to make this argument using data derived from international cultivator repositories. It is also the first to make inferences on export facilitation, consumer behaviour and international market selection. Her findings strengthen the urgent call for the adoption of sustainable production technologies and responsible consumption. 

The peach and nectarine export sector is a highly competitive sector which is driven y consumer's demands for fruit of quality and these are fruit that delivers good eating experience, is appealing to the senses and has no blemishes. Provision of such perfect fruit often entails the use of chemicals that are harmful to the environment.

In her study, Dr Tsvakirai hypothesises that South Africa's use of climate change adapted cultivars in meeting consumer demands facilitates the provision of a form of environmental upgrading that should be used by the industry to gain an industry to gain an added added competitive advantage in the global market.

“The study found that it would be necessary to develop food label to communicate this additional value in South Africa’s exports. The communication of value is very important as consumers become more willing to pay premium when provided with information of quality of the product they are purchasing. This is particularly true for the South Africa's international customers who are more aware of the negative effects of climate change,” she said. 

"Although I faced many challenges, I enjoyed my PhD because it allowed me to further my investigations into sustainable food systems. The study provided a strong message on how the promotion of sustainable production and should be coupled with market tools that enable responsible consumption. This also enables longer term commitments to good environmental stewardship." 

Dr Tsvakirai started her career at the Agricultural Research Council and was a lecturer at North-West University before joining UMP in 2019. She holds a BSc and MSc Agricultural Economics and a PhD in Economics. 

“I enjoy lecturing at UMP as the research-led modules that I lecture allows me to utilize some elements of my research during teaching. I also find engagement with final year students that I teach quite interesting as they are eager to apply economic and management theory to various scenarios in the agricultural space.”

Dr Tsvakirai is an emerging researcher and has published seven scientific publications in ISI/Scopus indexed journals, which have earned her an H-index of 3 and an M-index of 0.75. She has successfully supervised 16 Honours students and two Master’s students. 

“I serve as a reviewer in four scientific journals and am an active member of various local and international applied-economics professional associations. I am an advisor to the United Nations Convention Combating Desertification, and at UMP I serve as a member of the School of Agricultural Science’s Research Committee," she adds. 

On what the future holds now that she has obtained her doctorate, Dr Tsvakirai says she now has the opportunity to lobby, motivate for effect of change in various issues that affect society.

“I am looking forward to doing this by writing more scientific publications and media articles. Attaining this PhD also means I can also be entrusted with more students to supervise, mentor and pass on the knowledge I have gained. This, in my view, is a more effective way to make an impact on society – one person at a time.” 

@ Story by Cleopatra Makhaga. Pictures supplied.

lophe, a professional teacher, says he penned the book after years of motivating people through life coaching, poetry, and inspirational talks.

“I’ve spent most of my life dedicated to motivating people and writing the book just felt like the logical next step. I know I have helped change many lives, and with the book I am hoping to help change many more lives – especial those of young people and university and school students,” he says.  

“Regardless of whatever situation you may find yourself in today, there is a special reason for it and it may be there to teach you something or to promote your life to a higher level. If you are observant enough, you will find that almost every day, in every way and in any situation, there is a certain lesson that can be learned. Our past can be a learning curve for us, so that we progress our lives in the present and in the future.”

There’s a Season for Everything is based on real-life situations and the book consists of three parts: Ultimate Words of Wisdom, Poetry, and a collection of Motivational talks that speak to different kinds of people in various aspects of life.

Hlope’s UMP journey began in 2009 when he enrolled at the university for his tertiary education. He worked as a Peer Educator at UMP and with USAID, teaching fellow students about living responsible, healthy lives. In April 2013, after graduating, he was appointed as an Educator by the Department of Education and began working that same year. He has taught many young students in various schools, and has particularly enjoyed teaching his students how to express themselves and issues they feel strongly about, through poetry.  

“My UMP journey has been awesome. Studying at UMP has been more than just getting an education. In essence, it was a real breakthrough in my life and a dream come true,” he says. “It has been quite the adventure and an incredible life path. Studying at a university outside of my home province also allowed me to grow and mature as a person. I have been enjoying every moment of it and thank God for all the little things with which He has assisted me in order for my ambitions to become reality.”

Hlophe has since decided to switch careers from being an educator to becoming an IT specialist and hopes to be the owner of an Internet café, and a successful businessman in the future. He is currently working as a tutor and is managing his online advertising and marketing business called LIFE Realities on Facebook.   

* There’s a Season for Everything is published by Mbokodo Publishers and distributed directly from the author through books2read.com. Have a look here:books2read.com/u/3k5NDK.

@ Story by Lisa Thabethe. Pictures supplied.

Sithole said the role of the Chapter is to look into issues of unemployment, funding, and historical debt, which seem to be the main challenges faced by most graduates.

“As far as the issues of unemployment and historical debt, as the alumni, it lies on your shoulders to stand up and look for ways to address these collective concerns. Some of the Alumni members are already graduates of UMP; they are out there looking for employment without proof that they are qualified. Therefore, your role is extended to address their needs,” he said.

“To change the problems faced by our members, and society at large, we need to begin to change the pattern of our thinking. We must be creative thinkers if we are to come up with solutions to the problems we face. We were all trained at UMP, we’ve learnt how to be innovative, adapt, collaborate and be relevant. These things are nothing new to us, but we have to make a concerted effort.”

He further challenged the Chapter Committee to make a massive contribution towards the vision of UMP to achieve its mandate, members have to work together  and help UMP to maintain its high level of academic excellence.

“You can work to either be remembered as problem solvers, and innovative leaders, making a positive impact in the UMP community and society at large or you can choose to be remembered for causing problems for and pointing out problems at the University. Or you choose not to be remembered at all, because of doing nothing. A leader is someone whose aroma lingers around and can be felt by many – long after they are gone." 

Sithole added that fundraising strategies need to be created by the members to raise funds to assist your constituency. Collaborative efforts must be put in place to solve the issue of unemployment.

"All your members who are in business, employed and those unemployed must collaborate to creatively solve the problems at hand. For example: if we have 10 unemployed alumni in Limpopo and have at least seven self-employed alumni in Limpopo and the surrounding area, we can suggest that they hire those who are unemployed to gain experience and practical skills in their businesses,” he added.

“If you collaborate with powerful and financially well-resourced organizations, such as AgriSeta, Services SETA, MARCSETA the issue of practical experience gaining while earning a little to earn a living is addressed. There are potential employers in Agriculture, ICT, Hospitality and Social Sciences. All these employers might be in a position to assist but only when approached with sound proposals."

Sithole reminded the Chapter that they also needed to help raise funds for university students, infrastructure, and the alumni. “If you will be able to achieve all this, I promise you, you will extend your term of office from two years to four years. Leaders who achieve these great goals, are leaders who seize every opportunity available to them and learn to excuse themselves from excuses."

Chapter Chairperson, Rejoice Modipa, added that the Chapter was planning to find ways to hook graduates with internships and jobs to reduce the unemployment rate.

“We are also prepared to fundraise to clear the historical debts of our graduates; most are struggling to find jobs or further their studies without their qualification certificates. We need to instil morale in our people as they have entrusted us by putting us at the forefront,” she said.

Modipa was elected as Chairperson of the Chapter in 2019. She said when the Chapter was launched they knew that it was going to be an uphill battle for them to address all the very many challenges graduates face.

“Not long after we were put in office, the pandemic hit us, anxiety got to us. We didn’t know how we were going to carry on with the mission of raising funds or campaigning for jobs," she added. 

"The new norm that came with COVID-19 was a shock. It was beyond our control. We are hoping that now that things are slightly returning to normal, we will be able to carry on with the newly elected members we have welcomed here today. When the going gets tough, do not get discouraged: after the storm, comes the calm. May we work together to promote, protect and love our home (university). We are because of UMP. We started with this baby and it's an adult now, more mature than most,” concluded Modipa.

@ Story by Cleopatra Makhaga. Pictures ChrisplPhoto