The Durban University of Technology (DUT) Real Estate Management Unit recently hosted a campus walkabout at both the DUT Durban and Midlands campuses.
The idea behind the walkabout was to introduce the Real Estate Management team, which includes Mr Thabani Shadrack Mhlongo, Senior Director: Real Estate Management Unit; Mr Mthulisi Msimang: Director: Real Estate Planning; Ms Lusanda Dlamini, Director: Infrastructure Projects; Mr Khulekani Sydney Shabalala, Project Manager; Ms Zukiswa Mtulu: Infrastructure Project Manager: Physical Planning; Ms Phindiwe Zimkhitha Yako, Manager: Facilities and Maintenance; and Mr Sizwe Sikhakhane, Director: Logistical Services.
The team were on hand to inspect all the buildings and facilities around the seven DUT campuses to ascertain if all are ready to receive students and the status of the upgrades that are being done at other campuses and what further upgrades and plans could be in place to ensure that all facilities and buildings including residences were in a good state to accommodate students and staff.
Mr Mhlongo, Senior Director: Real Estate Management Unit, explained why the Real Estate Management Unit initiated such a walkabout.
“From now on we are going to create a plan from our observations and come up with a way to make each and every corner more conducive to accommodative DUT students and staff members. This is also aimed at checking if the annual plan is aligned to the needs of the university,” he said.
Furthermore, the walkabout gave their unit an opportunity to engage with other stakeholders. He said that their aim is to create and produce their action plan and monitor those plans that were implemented.
He explained that these walkabouts allowed his team members to also familiarise themselves with the various DUT buildings so that it will be easy for them to understand and come up with suggestions to create a better environment for DUT staff and students.
During the Durban walkabout, Coordinator: Facilities Management, Praveen Singh said that the walkabout to the Durban campuses and DUT Facilities was a means to find out which challenges they are experiencing.
On the visit to Durban campuses, Helen Smith, lecturer from the Fashion and Textiles Department, expressed her happiness that the Real Estate Unit came to their campus and saw the environment that they teach and learn, with an understanding to also look into and come up with solutions.
During the Midlands campus walkabout, Ms Phindiwe Yako took the team on a tour to inspect the lecture venues, Riverside library, construction sites (Engineering Building, Residences) and the innobiz Centre.
According to Yako, the main issue at the campuses is related to space and is something that they aim to tackle, going forward. She spoke on the Phase One Indumiso Project stating that the project commenced in July 2016 and was completed in April 2018. In addition, the Riverside Project consisted of the Riverside library, lecture venues including ablutions and lifts which commenced in October 2016 and was completed in April 2019.
Phase Two at the Midlands campuses is under construction and consists of six lecture venues, 25 labs, offices, ablutions, kitchens and social spaces.
The team also met with Mrs Celiwe Chemane-Nyathi, Manager: Department for Student Housing and Residence Life at Midlands Campus at DUT.
She spoke of her role of managing the Midlands Campus University residences to ensure the holistic development of students in residences. She further gave an account on the upgrades done at the residence at Indumisio and stressed the importance of the upgrades which are deemed necessary as they form an integral part of students’ lives at campuses.
The innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Manager, Ms Nontokozo Ngcobo, gave more insight into the Centre and the role it plays in ensuring students understand the culture of building entrepreneurship. She further made mention to the team and what they have on offer which are industry mentorship programmes to the student business incubates.
In her discussion, Ms Ngcobo highlighted that it would be good to have student business opportunities in the university within the Real Estate Management office, pairing them with industry for mentorship.
Discussions with the team also pertained around the distribution of the university’s old and unused assets to the local disadvantaged schools. The team offering support to their (innobiz) continuous revamping of their spaces/hubs and programmes intended for; as well asturning some of the university spaces into creative spaces with students, etc.
Mr Mhlongo relayed further that as the Property Management Office, they have to go out to campuses to best understand what issues various campuses are having in terms of infrastructure, so that when the team members can sit down as a committee, to know what needs to be prioritised and get context on where their focus areas should be, in terms of upgrades and maintenance.
He said that as a committee they will also sit down and go through all the findings and try to fix all the issues and matters that were reported on, to the best of their ability.
Pictured: Zukisa Mtulu, Lusanda Dlamini, Mthulisi Msimang, Sizwe Sikhakhane, Thabani Mhlongo, Phindiwe Yako, Khulekani Shabalala from The DUT Real Estate Management team with the innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Manager, Ms Nontokozo Ngcobo.
Nomvelo Zulu/Waheeda Peters
