The 21-year-old South Africa’s youngest female Medical Doctor obtained her degree in Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery on the 17th of December, 2020 from Witwatersrand University.

Thibela is a native of Violet Bank, a village in small town of Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.

She attended Farel Primary School where she was smart enough and skipped grade 7 straight to Lehlasedi High School where she also did not do Grade 9.

“I’ve always wanted to do medicine since my days in pre-school. This dream almost got shattered when my Grade 11 results came back and they were nowhere satisfactory and this pushed me to do my best in matric in order to get accepted to study medicine. I attended all the extra classes and studied throughout the night with my friends. This paid of though as I ended up with 7 out of 8 distinctions in matric,” said Dr Thibela.

At the tender age of 16, she got admitted to Wits University and continued to work hard in a cutthroat field of study and her efforts earned her a Golden Key International membership.

Dr Thakgalo Thibela is currently doing her internship at Helen Joseph Hospital and sharing her experience so far, she said:

“I made the choice to come to the Helen Joseph and while it has been challenging, I have enjoyed my time. There’s a lot of support and you never feel alone. I’m looking forward to the two years that I’ll be spending here.

“Even on the most hectic of days when I contemplated my life choices I never thought of switching careers, I wouldn’t even know what to do even if I had to do something else.”

She has plans on becoming a neurosurgeon in the near future.

Dr. Thakgalo Thibela is a hope and inspiration to young women. Age is nothing but a number and shouldn’t be used to measure how far you can go in life.

“As a black female from a rural area, this a huge thing for me and for my people back home. It’s a reminder to all the young girls that we are capable of being whatever we want.”