Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille saw a story about Dr Mekuto in the paper, moved by his struggle she contacted him and offered him an internship.
Dr Lukhanyo Mekuto (28) is the youngest person to graduate with a PhD in engineering at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He finished his thesis in February but has struggled to find a job since then.
Dr Mekuto is a hopeful man, he wanted to find a position in South Africa. Offers from Turkey and Finland had crossed his path but nothing on home soil.
He is a source of pride in his hometown of Brown’s Farm in Philippi. He is the only son of a domestic worker and first in his family to achieve a post and undergraduate degree. He has graduated as a Doctor of Chemical Engineering.
To get by Dr Mekuto has been offering Mathematics and Physics tutoring to Grade 11 and 12 pupils in his community.
This story appeared in the newspapers yesterday, the 20th of September, and Mayor Patricia de Lille was moved by it. She immediately got in contact with the Dr and asked him to come in and meet with her. He was in her office a few hours later.
She offered him an internship on the spot and after meeting her yesterday, he started his first day today. The internship is only temporary as they look to find a suitable job for Dr Mekuto.
“I think you are in the right place at the right time, you can start with us as an intern tomorrow while we look for available positions for you. You can also job shadow people in the water industry in the City,”
The mayor is very interested in his field of study, especially because it was focused on micro-organisms breaking up contaminants in water.
“We are looking right now at wastewater because we cannot rely on rainwater alone to fill our dams anymore. So we have to look at how we can clean up our wastewater to an extent where it is almost sterile and we can pump it out into our dams and when it comes out have it cleaned further,” – Patricia de Lille, Cape Town Mayor
Dr Mekuto would like to continue with his Post-Doc but realises he needs to put food on the table. The mayor has confirmed that his new job will allow him to do both.
“Wow this was unexpected, thank you very much for the opportunity,” – Dr Lukhanyo Mekuto