The Durban University of Technology’s Green Campus Initiative has scored itself an invite to the 3rd Annual Green Indaba hosted by Tosaca Media Group and the Department of Environmental Affairs.
DUT GCI students will form part of the 300 exceptional young people who are changing the face of environment issues in South Africa and those that are aspiring to get into the environment industry. The theme for this year’s summit is “Green innovations and sustainable skills development for inclusive growth”.
The conference will take place on 29 June 2016 and 30 June 2016 in Johannesburg. Nine DUT delegates will be attending including the Director of Student Housing and Resident Life, Doc Nhassengo, who will also be part of the conference panelists.
The conference’s objective for the year 2016 is to go beyond exploring opportunities for youth within the green economy but to effectively explore and unpack strategies that can support green innovations and careers, at the same time empower youth with information and skills needed to eradicate youth unemployment and poverty by tapping into green economy jobs and business opportunities.
Siyanda Dube, former DUT GCI Chairperson, said the invite was like a milestone for the organisation, adding that it indicates that it is indeed growing and making a difference. “This invite means so much to us especially since we are the only University in the province to be invited. It shows that our level of maturity and the success we are achieving every year is good. It also proves that the initiative is indeed growing bigger each year,” he said.
The DUT GCI was launched in 2012 with the aim of promoting climate change interventions at the University. Since its establishment, the initiative has done various marches and campaigns, and has also embarked on projects as well as recruited many students to take part in its initiatives.
“By agreeing and accepting the invite to be part of the Youth Indaba, we are hoping to gain a lot of feedback and learn new ways which we can adopt to grow the green movement at DUT. This is a great opportunity for us to also share our work with other people and this conference will motivate us to achieve more and move to greater heights in greening, not only within the DUT community, within the community surrounding us,” said Xolela Xala, current Chairperson of the DUT GCI.
In the invite to DUT, Sanele Zulu, Annual Green Youth Indaba Co-ordinator and Co-founder said it is with the background of the work done by DUT GCI that he and his stakeholders found it befitting that the team be invited to the summit. “We recognise the efforts that DUT GCI has contributed towards the advancement of youth interest within the green economy and we would be honoured to have DUT as part of this year’s indaba,” said Zulu.
– Noxolo Memela
Pictured: DUT GCI Executive Committee.
