Celebrating youth excellence in science, technology and innovation

This Youth Month, under the theme "Actively embracing the socio-economic gains of our democracy", we mark 48 years since the student uprising against the Bantu Education Act. During June, the Department of Science and Innovation will showcase some of the increasing number of talented young black scientists and researchers that have emerged in the science system in the 30 years since our first democratic election.

Dr Mbongeni Shungube

Here we introduce Dr Mbongeni Shungube, who has a PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Born and raised in Mpumalanga in a village called Mbuzini, Shungube attended Samora Machel High School and was one of the top 10 matriculants of his year in the Lubombo school circuit. 

While Shungube was majoring in chemistry and chemical technology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, he developed a passion for drug design and synthesis, and went on to do a PhD.

The primary focus of his PhD research was to develop MBL (metallo-β-lactamase) inhibitors for bacterial pathogens through multi-step organic synthesis. MBL inhibitors are being studied to help deal with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The PhD work was published in five peer-reviewed articles, the best of which led to the filing of a patent application and to further investigation of the compound design at clinical trial level by a commercial pharmaceutical company.

Shungube is currently one of several talented young researchers employed at the newly launched Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI).  He works as a research quality control analyst in the NuMeRI radiopharmacy department, where he is involved in the early to late stages of clinical trial production and quality control for radiopharmaceuticals.

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The government's national Youth Day event will take place at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, Limpopo.