Like any other student, Siyabonga Protus Radebe was happy to enroll for a qualification at the University in 2009. Radebe registered for a Diploma in Biomedical Schiences, which he completed in 2011. From 2012 to 2013, he was studying towards a B.Tech in the Biomedical Sciences. Two years later, Radebe enrolled for a Master’s in Health Sciences, at the Durban University of Technology, and completed it in 2018. Now, he is studying towards a Master’s in Public Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Radebe, a man from Ladysmith in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, has rejoined his alma mater as a lecturer to “give back”. His focus are the students that he has advised should have “an imagination” to be great than what they are. “While I was still a student, I imagined myself as a lecturer,” Radebe said. “That is what I did. Then I put together a plan, part of which was to acquire the right qualifications that would see my plan becoming a reality,” he continued.
Radebe said his plans as he rejoins the University as an academic were to learn more to find his footing, and then decide what to do next. This might include pursuing a PhD, he said. Radebe worked in industry for 10 years before rejoining MUT. “I worked at both private and public clinical diagnostic and research labs, as a medical technologist.
Radebe, who rejoined MUT a short while ago, and is at present lecturing Health Physics, said his love for teaching developed when he was a guest lecturer at the University. “Coming from one of the lectures that I gave at MUT as a guest lecturer, I realised that I have it; I can go on and become an academic. That is when the interest and love for teaching met, and it was confirmed that I was indeed on the right track,” Radebe said.
Radebe defined Health Physics as “an application of Physics in relation to the risk of exposure to elements like radiation, with emphasis on how these impacts upon an individual. Some of these are radioactive stuff, he said. For instance, it you are using glasses, your eyes also use their natural glasses. There must be synergies between the human being and normal physics. Different individuals react differently to different objects. So, the glasses for different people will be different because the people themselves are different, he said.