MEDUNSA UPGRADE - University of Limpopo

Profile: Dr Mhlangu
FIRMING UP THE FUTURE OF
MPUMALANGA’S HEALTH SERVICES
aAN ELDERLY MINI COOPER CONVERTIBLE ZIPS INTO
A PARKING BAY AND IS IGNORED BECAUSE IT’S
UNLIKELY THAT Limpopo Leader’s AWAITED INTER-
VIEWEE, MEDUNSA ALUMNI AND MPUMALANGA’S
RECENTLY APPOINTED HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH, DR ‘JJ’ (JOHNSON JERRY) MAHLANGU, WILL
BE IN IT. But he is. He engages cheerfully with staff
members as he strides into the richly subtropical, outdoor
Nelspruit restaurant where the interview is to take place.
From then on, most things about Mahlangu are a
little unexpected. It doesn’t take long to discover
interesting, and often charming, facts about him - that
he’s a poet; that he did ballroom dancing while a
student at Medunsa; or that, as the 1988 president of
Medunsa’s SRC, theirs was the first student group to sit
in Senate. But today he’s a man on a mission - to make
a difference in an area and a sector that desperately
needs it.
Mahlangu joined the Mpumalanga DoH on the 1st
of September last year, having left the Wits Health
Consortium, a self-sufficient subsidiary of Wits
University’s Health Sciences Faculty. Mahlangu was
planning to return to academic life and to achieve his
PhD, but the call came for him to consider applying for
the Mpumalanga post. And having landed the job, he’s
now throwing every ounce of his vast energy resources
into doing it properly.
In fact, as Mahlangu reflects on the path his life
took since his early childhood in a township near
Witbank (now Emalahleni); it’s evident that he has
been well-equipped to manage the demands of this
embattled department.
He grew up in a tightknit family that had the
wisdom to ensure that his educational needs were met.
He was granted a bursary by a chemical engineering
company for his final two years at the Central
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