The South Africa/Swedish University Forum (SASUF) is showing its muscles in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The SASUF, of which CPUT is a proud member, is a strategic internationalisation project running from 2017 until 2020 with the overall aim of strengthening ties between Sweden and South Africa in research, education and innovation.

As part of the first SASUF conference, which was held in South Africa recently, CPUT hosted two satellite events: (1) Digital technologies, future of production, industry 4.0 and big data and; (2) Transforming the curriculum, disruptive thinking and responsible research.

The collaborators agreed at the founding workshop to use the following six themes for research and development activities: Climate change, Education, Social transformation, Health, Sustainable urbanisation and Digital technologies.

“These themes resonate very well with CPUT’s direction towards smartness and the global sustainable goals,” says Prof René Pellissier, Director: Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships. She adds that CPUT researchers are active participants in SASUF events.

SASUF is a collaboration between 37 universities in Sweden and South Africa together with embassies, civil society organisations, funding agencies and ministries in both countries. “To this end, the declaration was presented on behalf of the South African partners to Higher Education, Science and Technology minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, earlier this month,” says Pellissier.

Said Nzimande: “Our collaboration will generate innovative approaches, solutions and results and will provide a wide range of solutions that otherwise would not be possible in fostering cooperation between Sweden and South Africa.”

The next SASUF conference will be held at Uppsala University, Sweden, in May 2020.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment hosted the inaugural Innovative Solutions (Innosol) 2023 Seminar to raise awareness of the looming deadlines for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the specific targets that must be met.

“Not only that, but it was also so we who are doing research can evaluate to what extent our research is addressing the Sustainable Development Goals for Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa or the rest of the world or to pitch great ideas to do so,” said Prof Veruscha Fester, Assistant Dean: Research, Technology, Innovation & Partnerships.

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) was amongst the invited guests as they are responsible for reporting progress against the targets. “So, in this case we had external input on SDG 6 target 6.2. The event was also for them to provide the challenges that they are facing in meeting the targets. This provides an opportunity for our students to engage in relevant research,” said Fester.

During the seminar, Andre van der Walt, Chief Director: Sanitation Services Support, DWS, provided a plenary address on possible contributions of the academic institutions towards achieving the sustainable development goal 6.2 target for sanitation and hygiene. “[The] State of sanitation in South Africa is in a bad state… There is projected 17% deficit in water demand and supply by 2030,” said Van der Walt. He stated that “Our water consumption per capital per day above the world average”.

“Water levels continue to decline, 53% of wastewater treatment works (WwTW)are in poor to critical state,” he said.

“Given these inevitable challenges there is an urgent need to adopt and implement non sewered sanitation systems and minimise the use of water resources.”

Fester said the seminar was “in line with the Vision 2030 Goal 6 that states: Ensure the relevance and excellence of CPUTs academic and research programmes through the

development of linkages in the quintuple helix environment. Objective 6.1 Develop a 4x4 engagement strategy with our four primary communities (civil society, industry, government, and academia). She said this is an example of engagement with government entities.

SARChI Research Chair in Governance and Economics for Water and Sanitation Sector Institutions and Acting Director: Centre for Water & Sanitation Research, Prof Bongani Ncube, delivered a keynote address on implementing SDG 6: from community to policy level. The purpose of Ncube’s presentation was to showcase how “we have implemented SDG 6 and other linked goals over the years. I also showed how the Centre has evolved into hosting the Research Chair. I presented our current research with the hope of encouraging collaboration. I think the seminar went well; seeing Faculty researchers in one room was good.”

Dr Sweta Patnaik, Lecturer: Clothing & Textile Technology, presented with Shamil Isaacs, Manager: Technology Station in Clothing & Textiles and highlighted Technopreneurship which is technology meeting entrepreneurship. “This involves student projects where we encourage students to think creative and innovative where they address issues like waste minimisation, and address various SDG Goals like Goal 6, 8, 12, 13 and 17. If through the project we could prepare students to support themselves without depending on companies to place them, then it’s a success,” said Patnaik.

Fester added: “We are excited about the list of nine major challenges that the DWS provided us that relates to SDG Target 6.2. Our task now is to promote these as opportunities for staff and students to provide solutions. Hopefully in a year’s time, we can have a seminar to provide feedback on the CPUT solutions and research output addressing these.”

She continued: “This inaugural seminar is there for a vehicle towards achieving Institutional objective 6.3 that we ensure the relevance and excellence of CPUT’s academic and research programmes through the development of linkages in the quintuple helix environment.”

Written by Aphiwe Boyce

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CPUT recently hosted a German and Namibian delegation for a series of strategic workshops. These workshops were aligned with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Community Engagement in the Southern Africa Region (CESAR) project, which contextualises the following fields of action: Teaching, Research and Management. Social Entrepreneurship initiatives are explored through project partnerships with industry and communities as linked to the following three United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

• SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation
• SDG 7 Affordable and clean energy
• SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities

International partnerships are becoming increasingly critical as a means to address global issues posed by the SDGs. Therefore, the CESAR project seeks to address challenges experienced by communities in Namibia, South Africa and Germany through collaborative partnerships as aligned to SDG 17 which focuses on partnerships for the achievement of all the goals.  Support for local communities takes priority within the Southern African context through the exchange of ideas, knowledge sharing, skills development, and practical and experiential community engagement projects in communities.

A trans-disciplinary team, comprised of staff from the Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) and Flensburg University of Applied Science (FUAS), were selected to engage in capacity-building workshops and knowledge exchange activities through teaching, research and management. Prof Dr Kay Pfaffenberger, Director at the Centre for Business and Technology in Africa, (FUAS), is the overall DAAD CESAR project leader. Pfaffenberger alluded to the critical need for partnerships to address global environmental issues and was extremely impressed by the effective and efficient efforts of the project team during the workshop and expressed his sincere appreciation to the CPUT hosts. At NUST, the project is led by, Dr Laudika Kandjinga and at CPUT the project resides within the Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (SLCE) Units, led by Jacqui Scheepers.

“CESAR contributes to strengthening community partnerships and collective problem-solving. The partnership provides opportunities to engage community and industry partners and the various spheres of government to find innovative impactful solutions towards improvement in communities. CESAR seeks to lay a firm foundation for the development of a Centre for Community Engagement at the NUST which can monitor envisaged projects. A SDG Engaged Research Forum will provide further support for collaborative research projects even after the runtime of the project. The responsibility for project continuation will lie with the respective universities and their respective partners post project,“ said Scheepers, Manager: SLCE.

At the workshops, the team members took turns in facilitating and presenting on the various aspects and topics which strengthened the participation and inclusion of all institutions in the programme.

“This was surely a beautiful experience ... beautiful because of the trans-disciplinary project team working towards one goal and that being to contribute and impact our communities at large. It afforded me opportunities to engage with individuals from Germany as well as Namibia, to share ideas and contextualise aspects related to the project. Further to this, it also aligned and added to my international project management portfolio which links to my current postgraduate studies in project management. Working in silos is something of the past and the need for national and international partnerships must be encouraged for the growth of our University“,  said David Haarhoff, CESAR project support and researcher, CPUT.  Haarhoff works closely with Martin Kuhn, Scientific Assistant, FUAS and Theresa Burns, SL Administrator, CPUT.

During the strategic planning workshops, the delegation critically addressed challenges and opportunities in line with the project deliverables. The delegates also visited a community site, the Ulwazi ‘Knowledge“ Educare Centre, in Delft. The centre provides preschool education for children up to six (6) years of age. The educare was built with 1 700 old car tyres, 6 000 eco-bricks and 2 000 glass bottles. Both delegations were extremely impressed by the architecture and creativity of the building with sustainability and alternative construction methods being high on the agenda. The SLCE Units arranged for Gift of the Givers to bring grocery items for the children’s meals, snacks and care items for the young children. The principal and staff expressed their appreciation to Gift of the Givers, CPUT, and the international delegation.

The project spans over three years, ending in a comprehensive report in 2027. From 22 – 24 July 2024 the three DAAD CESAR project leaders from FUAS, NUST and CPUT will represent the project at the DAAD Project Leader Conference “Educating tomorrow's leaders to pioneer sustainable development – the role of academia” in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

At present, DAAD is funding 103 partnership projects that connect German universities with relevant partner institutions in developing countries in Africa. 

Further project planning session are scheduled to take place in September 2024 at NUST and in November 2024 the delegation will be back at CPUT. These project planning workshops will ensure that the desired project deliverables are achieved.

Written by CPUT News
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