Medical alumni to be honoured

LIVING alumni, greats in medicine, will be acknowledged on Wednesday for their contribution to their fields.

Professor Mochichi Samuel Mokgokong and Professor Lizo Mazwai will be honoured at the event, hosted by the University of Kwazulu-natal (UKZN).

The School of Clinical Medicine (Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN), under the leadership of Professor Ncoza Dlova, dean and head of the school, will welcome the guests.

The event will be held at the UKZN Utel (Technology Enhanced Learning) Studio.

Mokgokong was the first black South African to qualify as a neurosurgeon in 1987.

Mazwai is an emeritus professor of surgery.

Mokgokong headed the teams responsible for three separations of craniopagus conjoined twins (joined at the head).

He has trained and mentored more than 20 neurosurgeons and produced the youngest neurosurgeon in Africa in 2017.

Mazwai was the former dean of the Medical School at Walter Sisulu University and past president of Colleges of Medicine of South Africa, Honorary Fellow of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa, former chairperson of the

South African Medical Research Council, and former president South African Medical Association.

This will be the second of the series of events to honour UKZN’S medical alumni.

The inaugural launch of the programme was held last year with the aim to celebrate esteemed legends while they were still alive.

These series of events will grant legendary alumni an opportunity to impart knowledge by sharing their life experiences and life stories with the wider UKZN community and the public through a casual conversation, said a spokesperson for the university.

The next event is scheduled November 9. for