A professional life in the service of humanity

Umuntu, ngumuntu, ngabantu; a person is a person because of other people – this is a principle that Dr Vuyokazi Sigaqa has adopted in her academic and professional life in pursuit of improving the lives of others.

Dr Sigaqa visiting a construction site to collect data

Currently serving as the Acting Centre Manager and Supervisor: Student Administration at the Mthatha Service Centre of Unisa in the Eastern Cape, Sigaqa began her profession as an educator in 1995. It was during her tenure as an educator at a high school in the rural areas that her interest in public health began to shape. Pupils, mainly from child-headed households, approached her to talk about their challenges regarding HIV. “At that time HIV was rife,” she reflects.

Because Sigaqa did not have the necessary expertise to perform HIV management at the workplace, and to provide enough support, she decided to enrol for a Postgraduate Diploma in Management of HIV/AIDS at Stellenbosch University (2004–2005). This enabled her to develop her skills and to manage programmes related to HIV/AIDS in order to attend to challenges that pupils (including some of her colleagues) who were HIV positive had to deal with.

After being an agent of change and teaching for 12 years, she went to work for the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) as an Office Coordinator and Project Manager. Sigaqa says it was affirming when her new job in a different profession entailed enhancing the body of knowledge on HIV. “The project that I was managing was on positive prevention where we were looking at HIV-positive people,” she says. “We checked whether the HIV treatment was working, if patients were happy with it, and why some were not adherent to the treatment and not attending support groups.” Part of conducting this study influenced her decision to pursue a master’s degree in Public Health.

Research drive

Sigaqa’s journey with Unisa began on 1 November 2010 as a Centre Coordinator, managing the Mthatha Service Centre. Her work on HIV/AIDS continued at Unisa as the coordinator of the HIV/AIDS committee in the region.

With her experience and passion for research, Sigaqa sought to find ways to be involved in research support at Unisa. After discussions with her line manager at the time, a research committee of the Eastern Cape region was established in 2012. The following year she commenced with her PhD in Public Health. “Years later, I was fortunate to be appointed as the deputy chairperson of the research Committee of Practice (CoP) of the regions,” she says. The CoP aims to assist professional and support staff members in the regions with their research journey.

Fine-tuning research skills

While it was initially daunting to come across challenges with her academic writing style, Sigaqa’s academic advisor, Professor Lindiwe Zungu, alerted her to academic writing workshops offered by Unisa’s Professional Research Committee (PRC). The research support from PRC enabled Sigaqa to improve her academic writing style and taught her how to do data analysis and report writing. She improved up to the level where she was able to complete her PhD.

In 2020, Sigaqa participated in the Art of Research Skills development programme for science communications. “The training was so helpful and opened my eyes,” she says. “It has made my work easier especially now that I am writing articles from my thesis. Now, I know how to navigate through my thesis and how to reduce it into an article with the themes that I have.”

Promoting OHS of women in the construction industry

Sigaqa strongly feels that women have a lot to offer but, because of the challenges that they encounter, they are sometimes not taken seriously. Her PhD research study on promoting the occupational health and safety (OHS) of women in the construction industry seeks to lighten the burden for women in the industry. “Apart from the general health and safety concerns in the construction industry, women working in the industry experience unique challenges related to their physiological make-up,” she says.

Sigaqa explains: “For example, when a woman is pregnant in this particular line of work, she is expected to lift heavy building material like blocks of bricks and to stand for long periods of time. The current OHS Act does not make provision for these issues because the construction industry was predominately a male field. In recent years there has been a growing interest among women who join the construction industry. When I visited construction sites, especially in rural areas, I would witness women being treated as equal to their male counterparts without taking cognisance of how their genetic make-up is different to that of males.”

Through her thesis, Sigaqa has proposed guidelines on how these concerns can be attended to in terms of the OHS Act. She wants to assist women in the construction industry by improving their lives through OHS so that they can grow in their careers and make a greater impact in the hostile environment of the construction industry.

Never give up on your dream

Although it has taken Sigaqa longer than she had anticipated to attain her PhD, she is grateful for the life lessons learnt throughout the journey. “It has taken me seven years to complete my PhD,” she says. “It has not been easy. I had work challenges, and suffered from depression which almost resulted in my resignation.” However, Sigaqa did not resign; she just took a break from her studies.

During the time of her PhD studies, Sigaqa was working on a land donation project to accommodate the influx of students at the Mthatha Service Centre. “I was overwhelmed with work, the land project and academic challenges,” she says. “I wanted to quit, yet looking back today I’m grateful that I didn’t give up.” She resuscitated her projects (land donation and studies) in 2017. The year 2020 yielded good results, as the centre obtained the land title deeds for the land donation. Subsequent to that, she completed her PhD.

“I have learnt that if you have been given an assignment, whether you like it or not, if God wants to do that through you He uses you for His purpose,” she says. “The minute I finished the land project, which was for the benefit of students, even my studies started to run smoothly. Never give up on your dream, and run your race with endurance. With hard work, anything is attainable.”

Principle of ubuntu

Sigaqa’s academic challenges has enabled her to offer assistance to master’s and doctoral students at the centre. Aided by her support, two PhD students graduated in April. Sigaqa hopes that those that she has helped will help others too, because umuntu, ngumuntu, ngabantu.

* By Mpho Moloele, PR and Communications Assistant, Department of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation