Durban – eThekwini Municipality’s senior officer Dr Musa Gumede will be awarded his PhD in health sciences at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) 2022 Spring Graduation ceremony to be held next week.
DUT said in a statement that Gumede, 54, who qualified as a medical doctor in 1994, currently holds the position of deputy city manager for Community and Emergency Services in eThekwini.
Alan Khan, senior director of corporate affairs at DUT said Gumede’s journey at DUT began in 2016 when he enrolled for his master’s in management sciences.
After graduating in 2017, he put his studies on hold until 2020 to enrol for a PhD in health sciences.
Gumede said he pushed hard and focused on making sure he did some work every day.
“I also had to compromise and forgo some weekend activities like weddings and funerals so that I could make up on my studies.”
Gumede added that he was also faced with challenges during his studies as he lost his mother in December 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. He had been heartbroken that they could not give her a proper send-off due to the restrictions at the time.
“I thank God for her life. She was the best parent I could ever have. She was a dedicated single parent to three boys, a nurse to the whole community and a community worker. She made sure all her boys finished matric and took a trade or went to university.
“She loved all of us and prayed for our families. I will always cherish her teachings and knowing that she was proud of my achievements. Her death gave me strength to push more for her and I’m glad I have made it.”
Gumede said he decided to study health sciences due to the importance of exercise.
“When I worked in the health sector, we promoted physical exercise as an intervention to prevent chronic diseases like heart diseases and obesity. I then started to notice that there were no guidelines to assist participants who were involved in physical exercise programmes.
“Some of the trainers also had no training in what they were offering to participants and a need for a framework for physical exercise programmes was then identified as a need.”
Gumede added that the Covid-19 lockdown period made it difficult for him to collect data as he had to visit gyms to observe participants and conduct interviews.
“It wasn’t easy, but I usually set a target in my head for everything I do and try to achieve it even if it is difficult; eg if I have given myself three days on a chapter it will mean that after work I would have to work on it even if it meant going to bed at 4am and waking up two hours later to prepare for work.
“When you have family, student life is not easy; you must balance home life with expectations of a student. This is the biggest challenge I faced as a student. When you want to focus on research work, you must consider the expectations at home.”
Gumede’s future plans include starting a part-time academic life after his contract at eThekwini Municipality comes to an end.
He advised students to use all available opportunities to further their studies while they were still young and not faced with complex family responsibilities.