Medical student wears many hats

MAKING it through the day as a fulltime medical student is enough to run most people ragged, but not for Athingahangwani Ramabulana, who loves having her plate full.

Multi-tasking is the way of life for Ramabulana, a fourth-year student at the University of Kwazulu-natal’s Nelson Mandela School of Medicine.

Besides being accomplished enough to write and recite poetry and play the guitar on some well-known local stages as a performing artist, the 21-year-old has already evolved into a successful businesswoman.

She owns Athinga’s Corner, a catering company which supplies the student population on UKZN’S campuses with daily hot and fresh meals, and, if requested, her deliveries also reach dormitories.

She employs two full-time and five casual employees, and her meals are prepared on a food trailer she bought through assistance from a financial aid programme, Inqubate, run by UKZN to support students with entrepreneurial skills.

Ramabulana’s love for cooking was the catalyst for her business venture.

Having relocated from her home in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, to Durban, and living at the medical school residence in Umbilo, during her first year of study she began cooking for about half-a-dozen students.

That’s when she noticed a gap in the market and that many students failed in the kitchen.

“Seeing students eating cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner, that is not healthy.

“It doesn’t make for healthy living and productive people.

“When I started, it was because I loved cooking and enjoyed it when others enjoyed my cooking.”

Ramabulana only took on as many orders she could handle after lectures, in the afternoons.

Her National Student Financial Aid Scheme bursary surpluses funded her cooking initiative initially, which was largely for buying ingredients.

Ramabulana applied for funding in April 2020.

She eventually landed R80 000 from UKZN’S Inqubate programme earlier this year, and she now rents space in Manor Gardens, near the Howard College campus, where her trailer is parked. The funding has helped her purchase stock, branding and marketing.

Her full-time employees are a cook and a driver, while the five students work on weekends.

Her daily on-the-go offerings include pasta, chicken wings, wors rolls, doughnuts and fries. She also prepares traditional meals that need a few hours to cook and have to be ordered in advance.

Ramabulana said being a student, businesswoman and an artist was a juggling act.

Managing her business is her key role and she delegates the other duties.

“Our cook is amazing. I’m learning from her. I do help out sometimes, and I keep Athinga’s touch going with the recipes and sauces that I create.”

From the time Ramabulana got to medical school, she has been caught up with things over and above her studies, like becoming their “class rep”, founding her medical school’s choir, serving on her church’s leadership committee and co-founding an organisation that encouraged formerly disadvantaged students’ involvement in the health sector.

On the art side, she has performed at Durban’s Playhouse Theatre and in Thohoyandou.

She has also shared a stage with local literary giants like Gcina Mhlophe as a prelude poet at the Poetry Africa International Festival in 2018. As a result, people constantly quiz her about her career choice and her “weird” ability to do so many things.

Ramabulana said she appreciated “God’s hand” over her life because she grew up in a “hostile” home environment where domestic violence and protection orders were commonplace.

Her mother is closely involved in Ramabulana’s life and did not approve when she started out in business, fearing that it would affect her studies.

“My mother is excited and proud. I see it in all the ways she supports me.”

While Ramabulana is convinced that practising medicine is her calling, she plans to grow her business further in future.