Community Service Link – The Handover 2026

Description

This is a recording of the live session that ran in February 2026 presented by  therapists who completed their Community Service year in 2025 and Rogini Pillay, Chair of the National OT Forum.

Rogini Pillay [BSc (OT); MscMedSc (Rehab)] is currently employed as the Assistant Director at Groote Schuur Hospital OT department, since 2012, and convenes the Occupational Therapists in Health forum in the metropole. She also serves as the chair of the National Occupational Therapy forum in the public sector since 2016 working in close collaboration with the chairs from Physiotherapy, MOPS, Speech & Audio.
Having been a clinician on the ground level for several years, she is aware of issues that can and need to be addressed at higher levels and is particularly involved on provincial and national tender committees.
Prior to GSH, she worked at Tygerberg for over 8 years in burns, plastic surgery and lymphoedema, having previously worked in the UK. She established the lymphoedema service at Tygerberg & Groote Schuur Hospitals and was one of the founding members of the Lymphoedema Association of SA (LAOSA), having served in various office bearer positions, including president. She is currently the chair of the WC OTASA branch.
Her passion is working in the public sector and is married with 2 fur babies.

My name is Tshifhiwa Manyage and I completed my BSc in OT at the University of the Witwatersrand.

I completed my Community Service at Witbank Hospital, a tertiary institution, where I gained exposure across acute, inpatient, and outpatient settings. Working with a broad caseload in neuro, orthopaedics, paediatrics, mental health, and ICU allowed me to develop clinical reasoning, splinting and pressure garment competence, and a holistic, function-focused approach to rehabilitation. These experiences strengthened my ability to problem-solve creatively, and support individuals in regaining independence in their daily lives. My time at Witbank has played a significant role in shaping my identity as an occupational therapist and has equipped me with the confidence, versatility, and clinical depth required for future practice and meaningful patient advocacy. Overall, this year has laid a solid foundation for my continued growth as an OT and reaffirmed my passion for empowering people to return to meaningful roles and daily life.

Outside of work, I am passionate about anti-GBV advocacy and serve as the Co-Director of 16 Ways for 16 Days, a GBV-focused organisation. I also express my creativity through makeup, a business I’ve temporarily paused during my Community Service year, however I do still “play” with makeup in my free time. Both roles have strengthened my leadership, empathy, communication, and attention to detail. These are qualities that translate directly into occupational therapy, especially in advocacy, patient engagement, and creative problem-solving.

Kayla Kotzen is an occupational therapist who completed her community service year at Madwaleni District Hospital in the rural Eastern Cape after graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her comserve journey has given her broad experience across physical rehabilitation, mental health, paediatrics, and community-based rehabilitation, with a strong focus on working in low-resource and rural contexts. She has a particular interest in neuro rehabilitation, caregiver support, and creating practical, contextually relevant interventions. Outside of work, Kayla loves cooking and baking, hiking, running, being outdoors adventuring, and finding creative ways to bring meaningful occupation into everyday life.

Jennifer Hooper [(MSc(OT)] is a partner at the OT Link and joins the session as a facilitator. She  has worked in the public health, private practice, and NPO clinical settings covering general practice, paediatrics (medicine and surgery, neurology, psychiatry, learning and development) and medico-legal functional capacity client loads. She has also taught in the under graduate OT programme at WITS University and continues to teach on a postgraduate level predominantly in the fields of neurological rehabilitation and paediatrics.  Jennifer’s passions include: teaching and learning; working with families and children towards realising their goals and happy, healthy living; multi-disciplinary, quality service delivery based on sound evidence-based principles; activities(!) and the magic of the task-orientated approach.

Lauren Michell (MSc(OT)) is a partner at the OT Link and joins the session as a facilitator. She has clinical experience in community, spinal cord rehabilitation, wheelchair seating, sports classification and medico-legal functional capacity evaluations. She worked as lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand predominantly in the field of adult physical rehabilitation.  Lauren is passionate about return to work and vocational rehabilitation, particularly in the field of spinal cord injury and this formed the basis for her Masters dissertation. She values evidence-based practice, sound teaching and learning principles and goal driven therapy.