“Sometimes, it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that generation. Let your greatness blossom.” This is what former South African President Nelson Mandela said, and perfectly describes 32-year old visionary and North West University (NWU) PhD student Fortunate Mafeta Phaka.

Fortunate was named one of the Top 100 Young Mandelas, curated by News24. Prospective candidates are nominated and News24 uses their criteria to choose who makes the final list.

Fortunate is an environmental scientist and is currently completing a joint PhD with the NWU and the University of Hasselt in Belgium.

He was raised in a village called Kgotsoro in the Limpopo province and pursued his postgraduate studies in Potchefstroom. “My rural upbringing fostered a connection to the environment and made studying environmental sciences an easy choice,” explains Fortunate.

This is not his first achievement; he has accomplished a lot in life and has numerous accolades in the bag.

This is the fourth year in a row that he has received recognition for his research. Fortunate’s master’s thesis became the first in history in the Unit of Environmental Sciences and Management to be submitted with a published book.

The book is titled The Bilingual Guide to the frogs of Zululand and it is the first of its kind to be written in English and Isizulu.

He also started compiling a list of indigenous names for South African frogs and reptiles.

In 2016 he was named one of the Top 200 Young South Africans in a list curated by the Mail & Guardian and in 2017 he was awarded the Amphibian Conservation Research Symposium Future Leader of Amphibian Conservation Award. He received the National Wetland Indaba Young Professional Award in 2018.

“I also do wildlife photography and I help and manage an environmental NGO called Youth 4 African Wildlife,“ he adds.

Fortunate’s research interest is the complicated relationship between people’s cultures and wildlife, and how it can benefit conservation. He specifically chooses to focus on frogs and reptiles because they are underrepresented in research.

Fortunate says his achievement is validation that hard work pays off, and that it motivates him to work even harder and to maintain the standard that he has set for himself.

“I feel honored to be compared to one of the greatest South Africans the world has ever known.

 “I am in awe of Mandela’s legacy. It is unbelievable that one man can continue to inspire people even after he has passed on. It is something very few people will be able to achieve in this lifetime.”

Fortunate Mafeta Phaka.

Photo: News24