​Joseph Monaheng

When Elliot Mampane joined Natalspruit Hospital, now Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital as a porter back in 2006, little did he know that he would one day become an Assistant Director in Patient Administration. 
"It has not yet sunk in my mind that I am in this position, I could have never imagined this when I was still a porter. It was only after I joined patient affairs department as a clerk that I realised this was possible," jubilant Mampane revealed.   
Born and bred in the dusty streets of Gamasemola village in Limpopo, Mampane relocated to Mamelodi, Pretoria in 2000 after completing his matric to pursue his dream of playing professional football. 
Things took a sour turn to the south when his football career was abruptly ended by a knee injury during his short spell at Supersport United Football Club Academy in 2002.
"Following my disappointment in football, I went back home in Limpopo where I enrolled and obtained my N6 qualification in Human Resource Management at Sekhukhune FET College in 2004," Mampane explained.   
He later completed his internship programme at Kalafong Hospital before joining Natalspruit Hospital as a porter. 
The road was now paved for Mampane to flourish as he worked his way up through various departments in the hospital including physiotherapy, patient administration and others. 
"From that point I worked hard and never looked back.  I was completing tasks and projects that most of my peers were not interested in, which gave me an advantage and opportunity to develop myself through experiential learning," explained the 40 year old father of four.      
He was part of the task team that was entrusted with the responsibility of digitising the hospital records management when it relocated from old Natalspruit Hospital in Katlehong to Thelle Mogoerane Hospital in Vosloorus in 2014.  
Although he was recently appointed and still settling in his new role, Mampane has not find it difficult to hit the ground running because he was already serving as a makeshift Assistant Director in Patient Affairs even before his official appointment.
"The transition from chief administration officer to the current role was not that challenging for me because I was already performing the duties. However, I am still getting used to the idea of managing people that were previously my supervisors," said Mampane adding that he has plans to take his department to another level. 
"Now that I have authority to implement plans I have for my department; I am going to improve the quality of capturing data for patients. I want to be the champion of the new paperless system that the Department of Health is introducing." 
"In the past we used to make the mistake of training only the managers when new systems were introduced. This time around I'm going to bring my team on board so that we can all be role players," said Mampane.   
To improve himself as a person and a manager, Mampane holds the mantra that 'one should never stop learning'.
"I learn new things every day because life itself is a continuous learning process. Hence I am currently enrolled for a project management course which is a program of the Gauteng City Region Academy aimed at training government managers," he concluded.