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Dr Andile Mhlahlo, an academic literacies practitioner at the Academic Literacies Writing Programme at Mandela University, has struggled with chronic pain in his limbs for years.
This is an invisible condition that has affected his ability to work.
“Obtaining my PhD was not easy because of a unique medical condition that I am experiencing. I have suffered chronic pain in my limbs for many years, and the medical practitioners have not been able to help me.”
Referring to his pain, he said, “sometimes, it feels like a sharp pain, and at other times it becomes a burning sensation”.
The pain has affected his ability to participate in daily activities like running, walking fast, holding something tight, lifting heavy items, handwriting and typing on a computer, which was a challenge while he pursued his doctorate.
“Typing on a laptop triggers pain, hence I am using voice recognition software to type.” It took more than a month to train his laptop to recognise his voice. “If my laptop has a software or hardware problem, my writing process had to stop until the problem is resolved. This contributed to delays in submitting my thesis.”
Dr Mhlahlo explained that voice recognition was ineffective when writing people’s names, including his academic reference list, so he sought the help of student assistants.
But there were challenges with this.
Despite using the voice recognition software, working intensively on it still triggered pain. “So, the solution would be to stop working and then continue the next day when the pain felt better. Those instances of stopping were problematic because I had the challenge of time constraints, to finish the thesis in terms of the University’s deadlines.”
It took him eight years to complete his PhD. “The challenges contributed to delays in completing my doctoral studies in terms of the six-year timeframe for studying part-time, resulting in requesting an extension of the studying period,” he said.
His research focused on why well-funded public policies fail to achieve their intended outcomes. Focusing on the implementation of South Africa’s Cooperative Development Policy in the Amathole District, in the Eastern Cape, his study revealed how gaps in collaboration between municipalities and stakeholders can undermine development efforts. This results in continuing challenges of, for example, poverty.
The research highlights a critical issue: despite policy frameworks encouraging cooperative governance, there is a lack of coordination and willingness among different spheres of government.
“Some of my findings disclosed that there is still a lack of willingness to work collaboratively among the national, provincial and local government officials, regarding implementing projects at the local level.”
This limits the success of initiatives at the community level. His research calls for stronger collaborative governance as a solution to improving policy implementation and service delivery.
Although his PhD journey was long and characterised by challenges, it was inspiring and “an adventurous learning process towards becoming a scholar”, said Dr Mhlahlo.
His advice to students is they must have a vision of what they want to become through their studies, because it will motivate them to keep going in difficult times. “They must have commitment to achieve their study goals, and work consistently on daily activities, to transform that vision into reality.”
Did he feel like quitting his PhD because of his chronic pain?
“No, quitting was never an option, because of the burning desire that I had to complete my PhD studies. Instead, there was a moment when I felt discouraged and disappointed due to not graduating in April 2025, after submitting my thesis in December 2024. One of the examiners did not allow me to pass and then recommended that I must make corrections on the thesis and resubmit.”
The corrections took a whole year. “By then I had no funding from the University to employ a student assistant; I had to finance the project from my own pocket. This was a difficult moment, so I had to rely on motivating myself and the discipline to work consistently on my daily activities, until the project was completed.”
At the University’s Academic Literacies Writing Programme, he conducts workshops with students to solve academic writing challenges, “coordinating the process of reviewing students’ assignments, and training postgraduate students that we employ to review students’ assignments”.
Regarding the future Dr Mhlalo intends to become more involved in postgraduate students’ research supervision, as well as publish research papers, contributing to knowledge-creation in diverse fields, as interdisciplinary scholar.
He also wants to apply for funding for big research projects when opportunities arise, as they have a large impact in producing research outputs, and assist in creating part-time or temporary job opportunities for students and community members, such as being field workers in data collection.
“As a scholar, I want to contribute to community engagement in terms of developing cooperatives at the community level, collaborating towards poverty alleviation.