Dineo Mogashoa is an extraordinary young scientist and an inspiration to the next generation. She has recently returned from a 13-month stint on the sub-Antarctic Marion Island where she was part of a team of scientists who work on this remote volcanic island as part of the South African National Arctic Programme.
All a long way from her youth in Middelburg’s Mhluzi township, where she lived with her parents and older sister. “My dad worked as a cook and my mother sold lunches at school. As a family, we could afford the basics, but I always knew that for a tertiary education, I’d have to look elsewhere,” she says.
So Dineo applied for – and received – a scholarship through Anglo American’s Coal South Africa business. And she became one of the first wave of bursars to graduate from Coal South Africa’s Community Scholarship Scheme, earning a BSc in environmental sciences and an honours degree in ecology from the University of Pretoria.
“I heard about the Anglo American Coal South Africa Community Scholarships through my high school,” explains Dineo. “I have always wanted to be a scientist, but I was willing to study anything,” she adds, “and so I applied for more than 20 bursaries. I felt really fortunate when I was awarded a scholarship that let me to study something I was passionate about.”
Unlike the more traditional bursary scheme from Anglo American, this Community Scholarship Scheme does not require beneficiaries to study mining-related disciplines. Rather, scholarships are awarded to learners living in host communities who come from financially-constrained backgrounds. And once recipients have completed their studies, they have no employment obligation for Anglo American.
As to why Dineo decided to focus on environmental sciences and ecology, she explains: “I decided to study environmental science and ecology because I wanted to study something that I felt was relevant to South Africa and to the world in general. Currently, we’re facing a lot of challenges related to the environment, from climate change to industry-specific challenges, and I wanted to be a part of addressing those challenges.”
Dineo explains that despite wanting to be a scientist her whole life, her recent post on Marion Island (where research focuses on biological processes, bird and plant life, and aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems) was not what she has envisioned as a young girl.
“When I thought of scientists while I was growing up, I imagined being in a lab and wearing a white lab coat, so this experience with field work was not what I expected. I’m definitely glad it was not what I expected, though!”
Situated in the southern Indian ocean, conditions on Marion Island are harsh – constant winds, low temperatures and large amounts of snow and rain make it an inhospitable place to live, so it’s not surprising that just 24 overwintering researchers and base personnel are its only residents.
“The wind here is hectic – I can’t emphasise this enough! We have to wear gumboots every time we step out as the flat plains closer to the coast are mires. The interior is beautiful and rocky, and there’s a lot of interesting wildlife,” says Dineo, who has seen penguins, seals, walruses, albatross and killer whales in their natural habitat.
“We were collecting field data on wind patterns and wind speeds as part of a project that was started in 2018 to model the wind patterns on the island,” says Dineo, who explains that the aim of the project is to understand how wind drives the island’s ecological processes. “For instance, most of the plants there are wind dispersed. So if you know the wind patterns, you can estimate how seeds will travel, which will affect the vegetation patterning and the general ecological processes on the island.”
When she’s not studying or collecting wind mapping data on a remote island, Dineo, like most people of her generation, enjoys listening to music and hanging out with friends. She also enjoys hiking, which is a good thing, given that part of the research on Marion Island involved walking around the island twice a month to collect data from the anemometers located at the 13 stations scattered across the island.
And she points out that once the helicopter from the famed supply ship SA Agulhas II touches down, walking is the only form of transport. “I recently walked the island’s complete circumference in one day. It’s about 90kms and took 19-and-half hours to finish. It was by far the most physically challenging thing I have ever done.”
And this wasn’t the only challenging part.
“The hardest thing, obviously, was being away from my family and not seeing them or friends for such a long time,” she says. “It can also be difficult to work closely with people that you've never met before. You have to deal with different personalities and be able to handle people that come from sometimes vastly different backgrounds, so it takes a lot of adapting. Those were definitely some of the biggest challenges.”
“And I also missed eating fresh fruit! That's one thing you don't realise you take for granted – just eating something that’s fresh and not dried, canned or frozen,” she adds.
Overall, however, Dineo says the experience was definitely a positive one, and despite the potentially challenging environment, there were many aspects she enjoyed. “My favourite part about the work was working in such a dynamic environment with new challenges every day. The elements made it feel like such a different place from day to day that it seemed like we were constantly engaging in different work.”
As far as the future goes, Dineo’s long-term goal is to be working in the field of environmental auditing. For now, however, she’s looking to gain more experience in her chosen field. “I plan to spend the next couple of years working with environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and so on to build up my knowledge base and prepare me for the work I want to do in environmental auditing.”
“And I hope one day I’ll get the opportunity to work for Anglo American to give back to the company that made it all possible,” she concludes.