The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, opening remarks on the occasion of the Imbali Education And Innovation Precinct (IEIP) visit
Programme Director, Mr Mfanozelwe Shozi;
KZN MEC for Housing and Public works, Mr Jomo Sibiya; Umsunduzi Local Municipality Mayor, Cllr Mzimkhulu Thebolla; Ward Councillor Ndawonde;
Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Durban University Technology, Prof Thandwa Mthembu;
DHET Regional Manager, Dr Sipho Nzimande
Principal of Umgungundlovu TVET College, Ms Ntombi Ntshangase
Ms Charlotte Thabang Mampane, Commissioner of the National Lotteries Commission
Midlands Campus Director, Dr Joe Molete;
Umsunduzi Administrator and Municipal Manager, Mr Khathide;
Mr Bonginkosi Mshengu of the local business chamber and Captains of Industry; CEOs and representatives of SETAs
Civil society organisations;
Officials from both the DHET and DSI Members of the media
All distinguished and invited guests and participants Ladies and gentlemen
Let me take this opportunity to greet you all this afternoon. I am delighted that we are meeting here today to revitalise and expand the Imbali Education Precinct project which was started in 2014 as a Ministerial project.
As Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Indeed education is an investment and fundamental for nation-building and unity in our country, and helps us to also competitively and cooperatively participate in the global economy.
I want to believe that today we will all agree that the only way our society can continue to grow and prosper is through proper education at all levels.
The Imbali Education and Innovation Precinct is a pilot project that explores an alternative modality of education delivery, based on closer multi-educational institutional cooperation, closer articulation, and with science and innovation linkages. The project is intended to be the first of three such precincts to be established as part of the new National Plan for Post-School Education and Training, with next one to be in Giyani in Limpopo.
The project is also in line with our White Paper for Post-School Education and Training which aims to build an Expanded, Effective and Integrated Post-School education and training system.
The project comprises of an interconnected set of institutions, which are able to collaborate and support each other in the delivery of their individual mandates, including through establishing strong relationships with the communities in which they are located, and with industry and civil society organisations in their locality.
We have decided to pilot this education precinct model here in Imbali because the specific collection of education institutions in this locality provides the perfect location for an education precinct model to be implemented and piloted.
Imbali is eminently suitable for this precinct development as it already has in close proximity institutions which cover the full range of education tiers, including an early learning facility, a variety of school and post-school facilities, including a university campus, a school for the disabled, a TVET campus and other related amenities.
Interestingly in this precinct has a historic building - the Manaye hall - which was the last place where our first President addressed his last political meeting before he was arrested in Howick, some 40 kilometeres from here.
This project is also in line with our new landscape of the Ministry of Higher
Education, Science and Innovation which aims at aligning our skills development and innovation strategies much closer together in order to facilitate an innovation-led, skills based, economic growth and development strategy.
Effectively, this means that we intend to integrate our universities, TVET colleges, SETAs and our National System of Innovation (NSI) in order to produce a well- rounded student who is ready to take up their positions within our economy. All of this in a township!
Through this initiative we will be able to prepare our intellectually astute and skilled students ready to deal with the needs of the 21st century.
This is the reason why today I would like to expand the mandate of the Imbali precinct to include Innovation and Cultural programmes to ensure that there is no facet of student development which is left undeveloped.
In furthering integration, this precinct will be linked to other post school education and training institution within this city, the KZN Midlands region and province.
This is amongst the reasons that I am looking forward to tour the Durban University of Technology (DUT) Construction site of the Engineering Unit, Agri Hub and Entrepreneurship Unit.
The resuscitation and expansion of the Imbali Education Precinct project today takes place in the context of our innovation-led economic growth and development strategy, which requires us to address what is sometimes referred to as the “Innovation Chasm”.
In simple terms, this means addressing and removing the barriers that slow down and, in some cases, prevent the movement of ideas and inventions from the
laboratory into products that play a crucial role in the productive economy, including in the commercial section of our economy.
It therefore becomes important to ensure that the Imbali precinct also enhances entrepreneurial development of our youth, particularly to focus on grassroots innovation.
These innovations are often created by individuals with little or no formal education, and who steer innovation without having any advanced scientific knowledge. This kind of innovation offers opportunities for the poor and marginalised to actively participate in the knowledge economy.
In doing so, we will begin to realise our vision of a South Africa in which we have a differentiated and fully inclusive post-school system that allows South Africans to access relevant post-school education and training.
We will do so by developing capable, well-educated and skilled citizens who are able to compete in a sustainable, diversified and knowledge-intensive international economy, which meets the development goals of our country.
Our integrated approach will ensure that we reduce skills bottlenecks, especially in priority skills areas; improving participation rates in the system; correcting distributions in the shape, size and distribution of access to post-school education and training; and improving the quality and efficiency in the system, its subsystems and institutions.
Today we are also meeting at a time when we are confronted with the scourge of the coronavirus pandemic which brought with itself unprecedented changes in the manner in which government and society interact, how both public and private business is conducted and how we prioritise and manage our health and social affairs.
As a sector, we have also not been spared, we had to adopt new ways of providing learning and teaching by introducing blended education platforms, which includes integrating technological, digital learning and physical delivery of education and teaching materials.
Through our new higher education, science and innovation (HESI) landscape, we have also ensured that there is further collaboration between the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), an agency of Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and DHET to build ICT infrastructure in the pilot centres. This will serve as hubs where communities and young people, in particular, can access services, connect and experience the benefits of technology even from the most rural areas of our country.
Amongst others, as a Ministry and our two departments, we remain committed to strengthening and developing the PSET sector by investing in infrastructure to provide quality teaching, learning, research and innovation spaces. Through this project we are already beginning to reap the fruits of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s vision of bringing together DSI and DHET under one Ministry!
Over the period 2020/21 to 2022/23, we have substantial investment of R11.486 billion in infrastructure projects across our 26 universities. We intend to partner with the private sector to boost our investment in the TVET sector infrastructure.
I have restructured and streamlined infrastructure management within my department and I appointed a Ministerial Advisory Team (MACI) on PSET infrastructure as well as established, working together with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), an Infrastructure Project Management Office, with a particular focus on student accommodation.
We will also mobilize investment from, and establish partnerships with, the private sector in order to accelerate provision of student accommodation in particular, within the framework of the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Committee.
It is also for all the reasons outlined above that we particularly invite the private sector here in this city and the KZN province to become partners in this project as this has the potential to become a leading innovation centre and a source for highly trained graduates. Part of the plans for this precinct, as they will be presented today is to set up a science park that will have links with both the educational institutions
and industry. Through high level skills development, entrepreneurship and innovation we can even develop new industries out of this precinct!
In March 2020 we invested a further R496 million in student housing and other types of university infrastructure in historically disadvantaged institutions and we will continue to grow our investment in this regard.
Our focus is not only on infrastructure but also on lecture training, scarce skills and curriculum development.
The work for the establishment of a TVETlecturer training institute in Gauteng has begun and it is gain momentum.
The establishment of new TVET lecturer qualifications and the development of associated programmes and their offering by universities is also well underway. Our local TVET college is a very important partner in this project.
We are also forging ahead with the implementation of the Staffing South Africa’s Universities Framework, which is one of our responsive mechanisms to ensure the continuous development of our personnel at the university level.
All five sub-programmes of the Staffing South Africa’s Universities Framework are now being implemented, including the Nurturing Emerging Scholars Programme, the New Generation of Academics Programme, the University Staff Doctoral Programme, the Future Professors Programme and the Higher Education Leadership and Management Programme.
The targets set by universities in response to scarce skills enrolment plans are another milestone we achieved to ensure that we produce the skills that our economy needs.
In the new enrolment planning cycle, the targets for first time entering students into the scarce skill areas of engineering, life and physical science, human health, animal health and veterinary sciences and teacher education are gradually increasing. This precinct is part of these national plans to produce skills in shortage and in high demand.
Although a lot more still needs to be done on this score, these targets are an important step forward towards our goals of skilling our people and the country.
In terms of the curriculum development for TVET colleges, we have undertaken a major review of TVET curricula since 2018. As a result of this process, thirty-eight
(38) subject curricula have been reviewed and evaluated by Umalusi and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupation (QCTO). Fourteen of these curricula have been implemented since the beginning of January this year.
I want to restate what I said during my Department of Higher Education and Training budget vote in 2019 that we aim to ensure that within the next 10 years there is no district municipality that will not have access to a post-school training institution. This is in support of the President’s District Development Model.
This, in my view, would be a major development in the struggle to overcome the spatial legacies of under-development inherited from the apartheid and colonial system.
As I conclude, let me take this time to congratulate Midlands Campus Director, Dr Joe Molete and his team for their hard work and determination to see this project through. Let me also thank Mr Mfanozelwe Shozi for agreeing to lead as the Project Manager for this project.
I would like to thank MEC Sibiya and his Department of Human Settlements and Public Works and the KZN government, the Msunduzi Municipality, the Durban University of Technology, the Umgungundlovu TVET College, and of course both my department of Science and Innovation and the Department of Higher Education and Training and all other stakeholders for making it possible for us to have achieved these milestones within the development of the Imbali precinct. Siyabonga kakhulu ngokuthi nisebenze ngokuzikhandla. Ningadinwa!
Lastly, as government we remain committed to strengthening and developing the PSET sector as an integrated continuum such that it should offer seamless transitions from schools, colleges and universities into workplaces and other economic activities.
The potential and impact of this project is limitless, and it can truly change the face of this township and the whole of Pietermaritzburg.
Remember COVID -19 is will be with us for some time, let us not drop our guard, but always observe the health and safety protocols. We therefore must continue to wear our masks always in public, sanitise and maintain physical distance, whilst building social solidarity to defeat Covid 19.
I thank you.
