Tshiamo Strikes Gold!

Pioneering 27-year-old geologist Tshiamo Legoale has garnered international acclaim for creating a process that can potentially use wheat to ‘grow’ gold! It’s earned her the FameLab International award for 2017 – and she’s the first African to win it.We couldn’t wait to meet her.

- Khinali Bagwandeen

My mother was a single parent. She taught me a philosophy that she lived by: ‘You should not satisfy immediate needs but rather think about the future.’ I saw this playing out in our lives as she endeavoured to give my siblings and me an education. She knew she would not be able to afford varsity fees for three children on her income as a teacher so she sent me to the best school she could afford, working on the theory that if I were in a good environment I’d get great results and a bursary. She was right.

My aunt always used to say, ‘It’s okay to make mistakes as long as you dust yourself off and move on.’ She had a strong influence on me while I was growing up. She was married with six children and it was almost taboo for a black woman to leave her family to pursue her studies, especially in the eighties. Still, my aunt achieved a master’s degree. She encouraged me to use every opportunity that came my way. She made me a strong woman.