​As part of its 60th-anniversary celebrations, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is introducing 60 future healthcare professionals who are currently in their first year. Meet Dudu Kasonkola.

After achieving top mathematic marks in Gauteng, Pretoria Girls High matriculant  Dudu Kasonkola was offered a bursary to go study at any institution of her choice. “I picked Stellenbosch University.” She is now busy completing her first year as MB,ChB student on the Tygerberg campus.

“I suppose it’s just the way God made everything work out,” she answers when asked why she chose her specific course.

She says uncertainty in diagnosing patients is the biggest challenge doctors have to deal with. “Each human is created so unique that a generic umbrella approach doesn’t always apply. Sometimes the symptoms don’t add up.”

In 10 years time, sees herself to moving between countries in other parts of Africa. “I want to make a difference in the environment and empower more people to take health into their own hands with what they’ve been given in their circumstances.”

Kasonkola says she also likes to play devil’s advocate for those who don’t have a voice and talks a lot about the environment and the shrinking tree population.  

She’s learnt that that nobody understands her quite as well as her family does, and her desire to give back to them motivates her. “I want their sacrifices to bear worthy fruit.”

Did you know…

• She ’s a vegetarian. “I’ve learnt to make amazing wraps with the most interesting vegetable combinations.”
• Her best habit is greeting strangers.
• Her worst is drinking too much coffee.
• The last book she read was The Famished Road by Ben Okri.
• She cannot study with her back towards a door.