Name: Soji Zimkhitha
Role/Occupation: PhD candidate in Agriculture, Animal Science (University of Fort Hare)
Country: South Africa
Soji Zimkhitha is a PhD candidate in Agriculture, a department under the Animal Science division at the University of Fort Hare. Zimkhitha’s work focuses on Meat Science, in particular Red Meat Classification in South Africa. Her research involves finding ways of improving red meat classification to meet current consumer meat consumption trends.
Zimkhitha loved Agriculture since high school, although only a handful of people chose to study the subject and “were always teased... being referred as garden girls and boys”, she recalls. However this did not lower her self-esteem as it was her favourite subject. She pursued a BSc and MSc in Agriculture (Animal Science) at the University of Fort Hare from which she graduated with Cum Laude for both. Zimkhitha is currently in her final year of study with her PhD being funded by National Research Foundation and Meat Industry Trust. Thus far, she has published several scientific research papers and has presented her research both locally and internationally in various countries including Germany, France, Thailand, Ireland and Namibia.
The accolades for her work do not stop here. Zimkhitha achieved a merit award for being the best Animal research student in country (2014); the bronze medal for a meritorious MSc dissertation and relevant publications in the field of animal science (2016) and has been selected as one of the Top 6 most qualified young scientists in South Africa to attend the 68th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting in Germany (2018).
“Finding solutions through research is what excites me,” says Zimkhitha and each morning, “I wake up determined of finding out alternative solutions to existing problems concerned with meat consumption especially in the midst of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases,” she emphasises. Her long term goal is to improve the SA meat industry until it is a competitive country in global meat markets.
Zimkhitha feels that it’s not easy being a woman in the field of Agriculture and says that “as much as the sponsors are investing so much on ‘women in science’... at the end of the day we [women] sit at home with our degrees unless you trade for a job either with sex or money.” Hence many female students enrol for postgraduate studies as it was their only option after trying so hard to find employment. Zimkhitha believes that science is neither “for men nor for women, it’s for those who want it, all you need as a woman to succeed in science is a victorious mind-set.”
She feels that Africa can do more and the continent has many resources and skills, but maintains that the main problem is that “Africa likes to trade its wealth to developed countries instead of innovating itself with the land full of opportunities it has.”
In terms of work-life balance, she spends 65% of her time on work and 35% on her social life and to Zimkhitha “this is balance because at the end of the day I need to work to have the life I desire,” she states.
Zimkhitha says she strives to be a better person everyday and if “I cannot stand in front of the mirror and tell myself ‘I am proud of you, Zimkhitha for the person you have become and are still striving to become’, then no matter what other people say or do in trying to inspire me won’t work, inspiration has to be within you, and it has to be your everyday garment.”
Bite into this meaty interview below with the very determined, focused and hardworking Soji Zimkhitha.
Soji Zimkhitha was interviewed by Dhruti Dheda, the founder of the African Steminist on behalf of Geeky Girl Reality. The full interview can be found here.
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