Launch of the African Renaissance Festival at the Pearls of Umhlanga
 
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu launched the 18th African Renaissance Conference on the 10 May at the Pearls of Umhlanga. The annual festival programme, to be held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli ICC Durban, will take place from the 21 to the 24 May 2016 and includes an Africa Day Concert, a VIP Banquet and a two day conference. The Africa Day concert will feature Cassper, Kyle, Skekhinah and the DBN Nyts.
 
Chair of the African Renaissance organising committee Prof Sihawu Ngubane, said that the theme to be adopted for this year's annual festival programme is Entrepreneurs of Africa. The conference programme will focus on entrepreneurial development and on providing information regarding education and training opportunities to scholars and students from school to tertiary levels.
 
Premier Senzo Mchunu said that the African Renaissance Festival provided an intellectual platform to exchange ideas affecting the Province in order to develop our people. He stressed that growing our economy is a key to our future success and there needs to be a shift in how we do this so that we can go for 'space' - the sky is not the limit anymore. Premier Mchunu added, "It is the duty of every young person to learn from early childhood until tertiary level and then to continue to upskill themselves in various fields of knowledge.  There are many opportunities for young people to learn and they need to take advantage of these platforms."  
 
"The African Renaissance Festival is held in May and provides an opportunity to celebrate our Africaness," said Premier Senzo Mchunu. "We as KwaZulu-Natal needs to participate and showcase what we are doing to develop ourselves", he added.
 
Mr Andrzej Kiepiela, Dean of the European Union Member States in KwaZulu-Natal, emphasized that the African Renaissance conference programme aims to promote and maximise the opportunities for youth that are available through obtaining college and university bursaries to national and international institutions. He said that an important outcome of the African Renaissance Festival is to be the launch of a dedicated website platform to promote the access to bursary funding. Many scholars and students are not aware of the wide variety of bursary funding options that are available to them and many of these opportunities to study further are not utilised. This platform will be launched by the KZN Premier's office on the 16 June 2016.
 
Speakers at the conference include representatives from national and provincial government, diplomats, and the private sector. Examples are Ms Matsie Angelina Motshekga - Minister of Basic Education, Mr Michael Mabuyakhulu - MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Dame Judith Macgregor - British High Commissioner, Mr Vivian Reddy - Edison Group, and Ms Mpume Langa - Head Absa Private Bank.
 
Acting Director General Mr Frikkie Brooks concluded that the African Renaissance programme was fully aligned to the goals of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP).   By promoting entrepreneurship jobs would be created through taking up the opportunities in the KZN economy. In addition, developing the skills of people in the province is intrinsic to socio-economic growth. Once job opportunities and skills development programmes are in place then achieving the other pillars of the PGDP will follow. He said that the Province, "supports and stands strongly behind the African Renaissance programme in its totality".
 
Registration for the Conference is open on the African Renaissance website www.africanrenaissance.net
 
Tickets for the Africa Day Concert on the 21 May are available at Computicket  (R125.00)
 
Spokesperson for the Premier
Ndabezinhle Sibiya
082 3754742 
Phone: 031 327 9360 or 033-3413320 / 3342
Email: ndabezinhlesibiya@yahoo.com and ndabezinhl.sibiya@kznpremier.gov.za
 
 
Media Enquiries
Gayle McLennan-Smith
031 2671977
083 6530465
gayle@topbusiness.co.za
 
 
Conference Registration
Tel: 031 569 5988
Fax: 031 569 5990
Email: info2@thoughtfire.co.za