Nomagugu Nyathi

Nomagugu Nyathi is a Zimbabwean studying Law at the University of Pretoria.  Her PhD thesis is titled “Fostering the right to be heard: A critical analysis of child participation in South Africa's criminal courts."  The study is driven by her conviction that children who participate in the criminal justice system must be afforded special protections. Nomagugu is a highly driven and passionate human rights activist. She is interested in building the agency of marginalized and vulnerable people, particularly women and children, using law as the main tool for social change. Her passionate commitment to  human rights is influenced  by her own experiences of growing up in Zimbabwe where human rights violations are increasingly the norm.

Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked in the social justice sector in South Africa where she gained extensive experience in developing and implementing rights-orientated projects. Inspired by her South African experience,  Nomagugu established a children's community project called Scotch-Scotch Bhaza, (named after a popular children’s song) in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. To date the project has reached over 100 children through its life-skills-oriented and inclusive play component and has connected disadvantaged children with educational opportunities. Nomagugu's vision is that this initiative will one day serve as a community law center providing pro-bono legal services to children facing various legal challenges.  

Nomagugu currently serves on the editorial team of the South African Journal on Human Rights (SAJHR), where she specializes in editing manuscripts relating to freedom of expression, access to information,  access to justice, rule of law and children's rights. Nomagugu's dream is to one day occupy an influential position in the African region to influence the laws and policies affecting children and young people.

Nomakhosi Ndiweni

Nomakhosi Ndiweni is a Zimbabwean student, currently pursuing her doctorate degree in Electronic Engineering at the University of Pretoria. She obtained a first class pass in her undergraduate degree in in Electronic Engineering,  and proceeded under a Beit Trust Scholarship to the University of Leeds, where she obtained a master’s degree with distinction in Embedded Systems Engineering.

Her research and career goal is to help reduce maternal and infant mortality in under-resourced settings through early prediction and detection of pregnancy-related complications. A major step on this pathway is her PhD research, which seeks to develop a point-of-care testing system. The system will use sweat to measure glucose and protein levels in pregnant women and machine algorithms to predict pregnancy complications, including hemorrhaging and pre-eclampsia.

Nomakhosi believes women and children are the backbone of every society. Their health and wellbeing cannot be ignored. She dreams of a day where Sub-Saharan Africa’s maternal mortality rates are so low that no death of a woman will be recorded due to causes that could have been avoided through early diagnostics and prevention.

Nomakhosi gives back to her community by motivating and mentoring young girls to pursue science and engineering at tertiary level and to reach their full potential.

Nothando Dube

Nothando Dube is a Zimbabwean currently pursuing a PhD at the Centre of Augmentative and Alternative Communication at the University of Pretoria. Nothando was orphaned at a young age and despite extreme financial hardship, completed her A levels. She obtained a government bursary and completed a bachelor’s degree in African languages. She then went on to teach in rural schools in Zimbabwe. Her passion for inclusion in education grew as she noted the number of children with disabilities who were out of schools and had never had any access to education. Children with disabilities are still hidden away in homes and cannot advocate for themselves. She received a scholarship to study for an MA in Special Educational Needs and Inclusion in the United Kingdom.

While Nothando is aware that the national policy environment in Zimbabwe limits the participation of children with disabilities in education, she is also acutely aware that, for children with disabilities, a major barrier to participation in education and society is the lack of communication modalities.

She saw that communication technologies for children with disabilities are unaffordable and inaccessible to many families in Zimbabwe, and decided to explore the effects of low-cost augmentative and alternative communication strategies such as the Picture Exchange Communication System for children with developmental disabilities. She is committed to training various communication partners, with a specific focus on siblings, as a pathway to building communication strategies for children with disabilities.  Nothando believes that giving children with communication disabilities a voice will enable them to participate more actively in society and advocate for their rights.

Stephanie Ncube

Stephanie Ncube was born and raised in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.  From a very young age her parents instilled in her and her siblings the value of an education and she quickly developed a deep love for science and math.  Her university journey began in 2013 at the University of Cape Town, where she is currently pursuing her PhD in Medicine, specializing in Medical Cell Biology.  Her research involves identifying and characterizing an essential signaling pathway that drives breast cancer progression and figuring out a way to target breast cancer cells while preserving the normal cells and mitigating the harsh side effects of treatment. Her research has shown that the transcription factor TBX3 drives breast cancer migration and invasion. Since transcription factors are notoriously undruggable, Stephanie’s research focuses  on indirectly targeting TBX3 by identifying protein partners that TBX3 interacts with and thereby isolating more druggable targets to treat breast cancer.

Her short-term goal is to gain the skills to establish herself as an excellent researcher in the field of breast cancer research. Her long-term goal is to become an investigator in a cancer research institute. Cancer has affected a number of people in her life, including her mother, who is currently undergoing treatment. Stephanie  is on track to achieve to achieve these goals. Her referees describe her as researcher and professional “par excellence”.

Stephanie will be the first person in her clan to obtain a PhD and she hopes to be a role model for other aspiring black women scientists.