European Union Ambassador Dr Marcus Cornaro and former Trade Diplomat Dr Faizel Ismail unpacked the continuing partnership between SA and the EU during the session themed Global Challenges, Global Partnerships: SA and the EU at work.
Cornaro emphasized the EU’s commitment to South Africa and Africa as a whole saying that they gained much from Africa’s success.
“In recent years the relationship between Europe and Africa was mostly based on a donor recipient model. But here in South Africa it is clear that this is not enough in today’s world. Europe needs strong partners, Europe needs a strong Africa.”
Cornaro also congratulated CPUT on being an enthusiastic partner to the EU’s Erasmus + academic mobility programmes. With over 60 staff members having already participated since 2011 Cornaro noted that the majority of the staff who participated in these programmes returned to SA and ploughed back their skills.
“Our engagement in education and higher education in particular is not limited to funding- there is an important element of dialogue, sharing lessons and practices on policy development and implementation,” he says.
Cornaro concluded by commending South Africa for managing its own migrants for years. Commenting on the increasingly violent relationship between Europeans and refugees, Cornaro says the rest of the world has much to learn from SA’s example.
“When someone in Europe says we cannot cope with the current refugee crisis, I always reply: look at those countries who have been hosting millions of migrants for years. South Africa is one of these, migrants make up about 10% of your population,” he says.
