Flora Mosa Modiba is an Attorney of the High Court and the daughter of the late Professor Charles Modiba and Professor Maud Modiba. As chairperson of the Professor MCM Modiba ScholarshipFund, she is proud of what the Fund has accomplished in memory of her father.
Q. What motivated you to study law?
My motivation to study law came from a desire at an early to assist people with getting justice. I also
loved reading and writing and law allows me to do that full-time.
Q. You are reading for your master’s – tell us more about that.
I have been practising family law for the past 18 years. I decided to tackle my master’s in property
law because property law deals with all kinds of other laws which makes it diverse in nature. I would
like to be able to contribute to the improvement of the laws that govern the property law space.
Q. Working in the legal fraternity contrasts hugely with the NGO space. What have you learned and
been able to use from each environment?
The two are actually similar. Both involve forming and maintaining relationships. The main
difference might be that one is focused on profit and the other on making sure that the organisation
continues to make strides. I have found that fundraisers are not appreciated for the amount of effort
that they put into their work. The reward for fundraising is the actual giving.
Q. The Fund is largely run by the Modiba family. Please share some of your experiences of the
advantages and challenges of the family connection.
The main advantage is that we share a passion for the Fund’s mission of improving healthcare, not
only because my mum and dad were leaders in their fields (nursing and transplant surgery
respectively) and both respected educators, but because as a family, we were made hyper-aware of
the challenges of public healthcare and the need for dedicated professionals to serve in it. Even
though it was my father’s passing that inspired the idea of the fund, I sometimes feel it was
inevitable that we would end up trying to contribute to development in the healthcare space.
Of course, since most of the Board members are connected on the family side, the main challenge is
that the fund brings us into a professional space and when it comes to deadlines and following
through on commitment, we have to be mindful of keeping the family relationship separate. Also,
sometimes a family member is suggested to provide services, but it is easier to outsource the service
to ensure that standards are met and there is no conflict.
Q. The Professor MCM Modiba Scholarship Fund NPC celebrated its 10 th anniversary in 2023. How do
you feel about the Fund’s achievements to date?
Obviously, we are all proud that we have enabled eight doctors to qualify and enter public
healthcare service. And, while right now three scholarship recipients are finishing their MBChB
degrees, I feel with hindsight that we might have done more. There are many more ways that the
organisation and its students can give back to society and I’m disappointed that these have not been
explored fully yet. On the other hand, the early years were a necessary learning curve for us as we
had to learn how to operate a non-profit responsibly. Learning how to network and fundraise in the
sector was especially challenging. And demanding, given that all the Board members are effectively
unpaid volunteers with busy careers.
Q. Besides those, what challenges have the organisation overcome over the last 10 years?
The biggest challenge the organisation has faced relates to how to finance operational costs. Much
of the time, we reached into our own pockets but this soon proved to be unsustainable as the Fund
grew. We also discovered that most large donors are reluctant to fund operational costs. Yet these
are unavoidable, especially in relation to fundraising. We used to rely on hosting events, with the
costs paid for by Board members and friends. This method of fundraising was halted by COVID-19
but we were luckily able to attract a few corporate donors and maintain our momentum.
Q. Why are you exclusively supporting students at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University
(SMU)?
My brother and I studied at Wits which has a medical school so we are well aware that there are
many historically disadvantaged medical students there who need assistance, as there are at the
other medical campuses. We’re a small fund, so we thought it would maximise our impact and foster
a better institutional relationship if we focused on one medical school. Also, while our father studied
at Wits and UKZN, the bulk of his working life and impact as an educator and leader took place at
Medunsa and its teaching hospitals. Since the Medunsa mantle has been inherited by SMU, we felt a
strong legacy connection to that university.
Q. Besides offering the scholarship, has the Fund been able to assist students at Sefako Makgatho
Health Sciences University in other ways?
We were reluctant at first to broaden our offering from just providing the scholarship. As you know,
each scholarship is a huge multi-year commitment of resources for our small organisation. We do
not only fund the tuition fees but also fund books, food and accommodation to enable the
beneficiaries to focus totally on their studies, and you can see by our beneficiaries’ academic success
that this model works. But, after learning that many students at SMU were food-insecure and could
not afford basic personal goods, we thought helping them would help them to stay the course and
complete their studies. This fits our mission perfectly. We then started supporting students with
small monthly stipends administered by SMU. As part of its role, SMU also does an auditing function
to help us identify students in need. Given the difficulty of fundraising, we are still trying to grow the
number of beneficiaries. Our proudest non-financial commitment has been to recruit scholarship
beneficiaries and SMU alumni to act as mentors to current students to assist them in their journey.
Q. As you look ahead to the next 10 years, how does the Fund plan to expand its programme
offerings?
Firstly, the Fund certainly plans to expand its scholarship and stipend programme offerings to ensure
that more students qualify, give back to their communities and contribute to the health system and
expanding poor communities’ access to health care. Secondly, we hope to expand and formalise the
mentorship programme. Thirdly, we are also looking to grow the skills of the Board. Because the
fund must ensure that it grows relationships with different stakeholders, the members of the fund
have committed to joining different sector organisations that deal with tertiary education funding
and healthcare and to engage strategically with the principals of these organisations.
We know we don’t have all the answers so, as part of our current strategic planning, we intend
hosting a workshop with current and past funded students, ambassadors and friends of the Fund to
debate and agree on the areas of growth.
Q. If you could speak to all the alumni and stakeholders of Medunsa/ SMU, what would you say?
Well, the first thing I would do is remind them that 76% of the South African population depends on
the public healthcare system. Putting aside the well-known problems of State health care, the university system can produce enough doctors to serve the sector but every student is precious, and
no one who has already made sacrifices to get to university should be allowed to drop out because
of financial need.
The second thing I would say is, don’t think of fundraising or sponsorship as something only a big
company or donor organisation can do. We have thousands of alumni in mind when we say: a simple
small act like attending an event, buying the biography of Charles Modiba or joining our Woolworths
MyVillage will result in a small donation. Every time you do it, we will have taken another small step
together towards transforming and improving healthcare in South Africa.
If you would like to support our mission, the easiest way to do so is by joining our Woolworths
MyVillage crowdfunding campaign – Woolworths will donate a portion of what you spend to the Fund
at no cost to you. All you have to do visit https://www.myschool.co.za/signup/?c=b12618 (or SMS
“Join” to 31231) and follow the prompts.
You can support us by purchasing a copy of Dedicated to Excellence, Prof Modiba’s biography, from the
Board (info@mcmscholarshipfund.org).
We also welcome direct donations to the Fund (see bank details below). As we are registered with
SARS as a public benefit organisation, all donations to the Fund are tax deductible.
Bank details:
Bank: Standard Bank, Rosebank Branch (004305)
Account name: Professor MCM Modiba Scholarship Fund NPC
Account number: 401797139
To receive an 18A tax receipt, please send your proof of payment to info@mcmscholarshipfund.org