Why Did I Become A Doctor 🇿🇦 Podcast
@WhyBecomeaDoc
Followers
25
Following
17
Media
235
Statuses
268
Real stories from doctors, nurses, engineers & pros who chose their path. New eps every 2 weeks. 🎙️ Guest views ≠ our views. Info only, not advice. 🇿🇦
South Africa
Joined July 2024
Brother needed Fort Hare registration fees. Dr Motsoaledi borrowed R75, added his entire first salary (R925), sent it all. "I'll eat at the hospital canteen. I'll figure out next month." That brother? Now a Professor of Dermatology at SMU. One salary's sacrifice. A lifetime
0
0
1
Taxi operators surrounded Dr Motsoaledi's clinic during a taxi war, demanding he mediate their conflict. "You love money. You have the skill to bring us together." Activism wasn't optional - the community made it mandatory. Minister of Health on being pulled into battles
0
0
0
The Doctors' Pact: Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Dr GM Naicker, Dr AB Xuma - three medical doctors who formed a liberation alliance through the Indian Congress and ANC. Minister of Health on growing up inspired by medical legends who were also freedom fighters. #SouthAfricanHistory
0
0
1
Minister of Health claims one private Joburg clinic has 57 specialist gynaecologists. Says Mpumalanga, Limpopo & North West combined have fewer than 57. His point: staggering maldistribution of specialists in SA's healthcare system. #HealthcareInequality #SouthAfrica
0
0
0
St John's Eye Hospital: 700 patients/day, 3,000 cataract ops/year with meagre resources. Minister of Health got care there. Media: "Expected him to go blind." Public healthcare has real problems. But quality care can exist despite constraints—not because of them. Nuance
0
0
0
Minister of Health: "I have a very expensive medical aiMinister of Health: "I have a very expensive medical aid. When I'm sick, I know where to go. But for the rest of the population, it's a struggle." St John's sees 700 patients daily. Candid reflection on SA's two-tier
0
0
0
Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi says he worked with late Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to increase doctor training in SA. Claims: 1,200 → ~2,800 per year Says they more than doubled medical training capacity. #HealthcareReform #SouthAfrica
0
0
0
Under Bantu education, top African students had essentially one option: become a doctor. Not because it was the best path, but because the system deliberately restricted everything else. Minister of Health on how apartheid funnelled Black excellence into artificial scarcity.
0
0
1
New Episode 🎙️ From paediatrician to one of the world's leading HIV scientists — because an epidemic changed everything. Prof. Glenda Gray on growing up poor in Boksburg, watching HIV devastate her ward, briefing Fauci during COVID, death threats from anti-vaxxers, and why
0
2
2
Grade 7. A cousin who'd just started nursing told young Aaron Motsoaledi: "You're smart enough to become a doctor." That encouragement stuck. He chose maths. He toiled through Bantu education. He kept the dream alive. Now he's Minister of Health. Never underestimate your words
0
0
0
Apartheid healthcare: Doctors kneeling to examine Black patients sleeping under beds at overcrowded King Edward VIII. 5km away: Addington Hospital, whites-only, mostly empty. A white orthopaedic professor told students: "My medical knowledge can't fix this. We need Mandela."
0
0
1
"Great mathematicians don't know how to teach average students. They can't understand what you find difficult." Before med school, Minister of Health taught maths in rural Limpopo. His insight: academic brilliance ≠ teaching ability. A lesson for education systems everywhere.
0
0
2
NEW EPISODE 🎙️ From Potchefstroom to 21M views: Dr Yaseen Bismilla on forensic pathology, speaking for the dead, and breaking taboos around death. One of SA's few forensic pathologists. 209K TikTok followers. The placement nobody wanted changed everything. Watch now 🔗
0
1
0
Dental implant nightmare: Patient: "My lip feels numb" Boss: "Just inflammation, far from the nerve" Specialist's CBCT: "Implant is through the nerve" Boss to specialist: "My associate placed it" But the BOSS placed it, not the associate. Specialist's advice? "Run, Forrest,
0
0
1
"Financial literacy amongst people of colour is a serious, serious problem." Prof Dilip Garach: Generational wealth = automatic exposure. New wealth = no guidance. He warned government years ago. Still unaddressed. This isn't an individual failing. It's systemic.
0
0
0
“It was terrible.” Dr. Norman Cahi reflects on keeping his practice alive during COVID — resilience when the profession needed it most. #Dentistry #COVID19 #Leadership
0
0
0
"I make fun of myself not being a doctor, but still utilising the title. For marketing purposes. That's all I've done with my degree." Yash: "So basically you're a dentist now" 💀 The most honest take on leveraging a medical degree. #RiaadMoosa #Marketing
0
0
3
"Buy a Toyota Corolla for a year. Downgrade the house to an apartment. Use that extra money to educate yourself and change professions." Dr Ridhwaan Haffajee on career complaints: Action > excuses "Often the guys complaining about one profession will complain about the next one
0
0
0
"Dada, I want to be a doctor." Prof Dilip Garach (former Head of Tax, UKZN): "Think again." His advice to his 5 grandchildren? Steer towards business. Even with a professional qualification, convert it into a business model. Brutal honesty from someone who knows.
0
0
0
R103bn flows from govt to private sector annually to serve 14% of South Africans. One Joburg private hospital has 57 gynaecologists. Mpumalanga, Limpopo & North West combined have fewer. Minister of Health on why SA has the most unequal healthcare system in the world.
0
1
0