Durban — Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC, the Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, committed to sending 11 pupils to study abroad at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (Famu) next year. He was speaking on Tuesday at the EnergyWaterFoodClimate Nexus Summit.
The two-day summit, which ends today (Wednesday), is being held at the Coastlands Musgrave Hotel. It is aimed at addressing energy, water, food and climate issues not only locally, but globally. The purpose was to have a collaboration between academic institutions and various government departments.
Buthelezi thanked all the speakers, saying that it was a privilege to be present at such a conference. He praised the youth for being present and involved.
“I am touched to see so many young people involved as we never had this opportunity to interact with industry leaders from Eskom,” Buthelezi said.
He said the government aimed to send 11 children – one from each KZN district – to the US to study so that they could return and help with climate change and water issues in the country.
The Mangosuthu University of Technology Acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Nokuthula Sibiya said she was honoured to host this summit with Famu and hoped that by the end of the summit, “every young person present learns lessons to help frame their way of thinking”. She said last year, they visited a few US universities, including Famu.
“After engagements with them, they agreed that we co-host this Nexus Summit. This is the first summit of its kind on the African continent, let alone in Durban.”
She said they opted to have a summit instead of a conference as it allowed for robust discussions on issues related to energy, water, food and climate change. She concluded that the ultimate purpose was to establish a centre of excellence at MUT where they would join hands with sister universities around the world and conduct research that would address these issues.
On behalf of the KZN Premier, Agriculture MEC Thembeni Madlopha-Mthethwa said this summit was a means to an end. She said the success of this summit should be measured by the material change it brought to the lives of people in the province and the rest of Africa.
“It must be anchored on the acceleration of inclusive global economic, social and environmental order that is underpinned by the principles of equality.
“With climate change-related impacts on the rise, it is important to implement context-specific solutions based on different levels of interventions to achieve long-term economic, environmental, and social goals,” she said.
Madlopha-Mthethwa said bringing the Nexus debate from the academic sphere into development practice promoted cross-sectoral collaboration.
“It promotes recognition of sectoral interdependencies, which is important for collaboration to tackle climate change and save livelihoods. Therefore, we have no doubt that the experience of delegates at this summit and its outcomes will reflect not only the robustness of engagements but will again prove that Africa is a continent where new ideas are spawned, and movements born,” she said.
She said she was optimistic that practical and creative solutions to the water challenges KZN faced, particularly in the eThekwini Metro, uMkhanyakude and Ugu district municipalities, would come out of the summit.
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