Spotlight on Siyavuya Twetwa | Emerging Leaders Workshop

Getting to know Siyavuya

Siyavuya Twetwa is a collections assistant who looks after the collection and digitizing of specimens at the Iziko Museum of South Africa in the Invertebrate Paleontology and Geology department. He is pursuing a PhD in environmental and water science at the University of the Western Cape.

The first thing that he has to do when he comes in to work is inspect the collection and see if everything is well. After that, he sets up the specimens and digitizes them, which involves taking photographs of specimens, thus creating digital forms thereof.

According to Siyavuya, the handling of specimens is important to avoid breaking them because what makes collections important is their preservation and the protection of knowledge for study purposes and for future generations. 

Siyavuya as a young leader: Siyavuya sees himself as a non-vocal leader, allowing people to make mistakes and correcting them if necessary. He sees the Emerging Leaders Workshop as a beneficial opportunity to grow his career in natural science collections in the future. He sees himself occupying management roles in the future and finds it important to gather such knowledge for him to be a better leader when the time comes. 

Siyavuya’s anticipation for the workshop: Siyavuya is looking forward to meeting and getting to know new people, acquiring skills, and sharing knowledge.

The importance of the workshop: He finds it important to invest in young people in this fashion, as young people are the future leaders in collections.

Anticipated challenges in stepping into the young leader role: He is concerned about managing the conflicting styles of leadership that he may be met with as he steps into his young leadership role. To mitigate this, he suggests acquiring approval for ideas and plans from one’s manager or supervisor before implementation. 

Preparation for the workshop:

“I am preparing myself by reading the material that has been provided by the NSCF”