Chair of the African Renaissance Festival Organising Committee

A very warm Durban welcome to all delegates who are attending the 18th edition of the African Renaissance Festival in 2016.

The conference theme â€˜Entrepreneurs of Africa’ will again focus on entrepreneurial development, with an emphasis on skills development and access to funding through the promotion of international bursary funds. As the Academic Head for Teaching and Learning in the School of Arts in the College of  umanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, this programme is very close to my heart. The youth need to be encouraged and enabled to up skill themselves for the benefit of themselves and the communities that they serve now and in the future.

Further to promoting entrepreneurship is the need to improve access to relevant knowledge and skills through schools and tertiary education programmes in Universities, Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges and other educational institutes. Consequently, the content of this year’s conference programme will focus on the following aspects:

Plenary: South African Government and KwaZulu-Natal provincial government policy and strategy in support of entrepreneur development and skills development. We welcome and appreciate the presence and participation of Ms Lindiwe Zulu â€" Minister of Small Business Development and Ms Matsie Angelina Motshekga â€" Minister of Basic Education.

Instilling a culture of entrepreneurship â€" Through the examples of successful business people such as Ms Mpume Langa, Mr Akhona Mahlati, Mr Vivian Reddy and Mr Veli Ngubane, young entrepreneurs will be encouraged to take action and enjoy the complexity of being an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship at tertiary institutions â€" A relatively new challenge for tertiary institutions is to teach entrepreneurship. This topic will be addressed by Gnanam Pillay â€" Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Durban University of Technology; Prof Irrshad Kaseeram â€" Deputy Dean: Research & Internationalisation, University of Zululand; Prof Nokwethemba Ndlazi â€" Dean: Faculty of Natural Sciences, Mangosuthu University of Technology; and Prof Deresh Ramjugernath â€" Pro-Vice Chancellor, Innovation, Commercialisation & Entrepreneurship, University of KZN.

This year’s conference is also set to launch a renewed drive to encourage scholars and students to access international bursary funding. The African Renaissance Trust has recently entered into an agreement with the Office of the Premier, the Department of Education, Mr Kiepiela, the Dean Consular
Corps of the European Member States and the eThekwini Municipality in order to promote the awareness of the opportunities available to our youth to further their studies both locally and internationally. Consequently, the programme includes:

Education exchange success stories: Ms Susan Knowles â€" Education Advisor, US Consulate General will facilitate a session where four students will share their journeys to obtaining funding for overseas
study.

International exchange opportunities: Ms Peggy Nkonyeni â€" MEC for Education, KZN; Dame Judith Macgregor â€" British High Commissioner; Mr Rajagopalan Ragunathan â€" Consulate General of India;
and HE Mr Marcus Cornaro â€" EU Ambassador to South Africa will provide information pertaining to the various opportunities available for students.

I would like to thank the African Renaissance team who has worked tirelessly in making sure that this 2016 Festival meets your expectations.  We need to acknowledge the continued support of our funders especially the KwaZulu-Natal Office of the Premier, eThekwini Municipality, Aspen Pharmacare, and Transnet Freight Rail. The support of our media partners East Coast Radio, uKhozi FM and Isolezwe
is also much appreciated. I encourage all of you to continue your support in the years to come.

I wish all speakers and delegates the best throughout the proceedings and thank you again for sharing your knowledge and time on the African Renaissance Conference 2016 platform. I leave you with the words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk, if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward. Let us all keep moving together.