Making eye contact with Patrick Mawila
"How we see optometry here is not the same as in the rest of Africa."
Patrick Mawila is one of the area’s brightest young medical practitioners and in July 2017, he was elected president of the African Council of Optometry (AFCO) to represent the continent at the World Council of Optometry.
Not bad for a self-proclaimed village boy who grew up in rural Limpopo.
He worked his way up the optometry ladder, which led him to be selected as president of the South African Optometric Association; he served in this position from 2014 to 2016. To his great surprise, he was elected president of the African Optometric Association in 2017. “I felt honoured and think there is still quite a lot to be done. It was an overwhelming experience overall,” he commented proudly.
“How we see optometry here is not the same as in the rest of Africa. Nigeria and South Africa are well developed and well resourced.” Patrick also has a Masters in Business Administration from the Management College of Southern Africa. As an active community-minded person, Patrick has attended many capacity-building workshops on Corporate Governance, Performance Management, Stakeholder Relations, and Strategy Planning and Formulation.
See this week’s Courier for the full interview
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