HE GREW up in a rural village in KwaZulu-Natal, sleeping on the kitchen floor of a two-roomed mud house, along with his three siblings. There were no doctors in those parts at that time and he certainly had no idea what a neurosurgeon was.
Now, Dr Zwelithini Mpungana is very much aware of what neurosurgery entails – he’s a highly specialised spinal neurosurgeon and his rise to the top of his profession is nothing short of inspirational. We’re chatting to Zwelithini via a videolink from the Life Beacon Bay Hospital in East London, where he’s recently settled. It’s a far cry from his childhood village.
“We were poor, but we never felt like it,” the 40-year-old says
