When our profile writer, Sean Christie, asked Aaron Motsoaledi for a form of life story share, South Africa's health minister responded with a swift biographical flyover. But Christie was more interested in a sense of the experiences that lie behind the bullet points, both good and bad.

I anticipated postponements and there were a few, but an afternoon came when his ministerial commitments concluded earlier than expected, and I was told to be online at three o'clock.

"He should sign on," says the health department's spokesperson, Foster Mohale, adding, "if he doesn't, call me".

At 3pm, I open the Zoom meeting and confront a notification saying, "Aaron Motsoaledi has entered the waiting room for this meeting".

I click "admit", discharging my temporary power over one of the country's most senior politicians, and after pleasantries explain that I am hoping for a form of life story share.

Motsoaledi, taking lunch on the fly, responds with a swift biographical flyover.

He says he was born, raised and mostly educated in Sekhukhuneland, which straddles the border of present-day Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces. After some false starts he studied medicine at what was then the University of Natal (today the University of KwaZulu-Natal Nelson R Mandela school of medicine), doing his internship at King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban. After graduating, he worked for a year at Masana Hospital (now Mapulaneng) in Bushbuckridge, and in 1986 opened a private...