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UFS PhD student’s team wins Durban leg of prestigious Students Reinventing Cities competition

15 August 2023 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Supplied

Ndumiso Mbuthuma, a PhD student at the University of the Free State (UFS), was part of a team that won the Durban leg of the Students Reinventing Cities competition. “It was a beautiful experience and an opportunity to not only be a student again but to contribute to the greater good,” Mbuthuma said.

The Students Reinventing Cities competition is coordinated by C40, a global network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities who are united in action to confront the climate crisis.

The Umgeni Interchange Team, which consisted of Mbuthuma, who is a student in the UFS Centre for Development Support, three students from the University of Cape Town, and one from an institution in France, participated in the Durban leg of the competition, which began in April 2023.

After deliberations by C40 and city representatives, the team was informed on 13 July 2023 that they had been selected as the winners of the regional Durban competition.

The Students Reinventing Cities competition provides a platform for students and academics to work with cities around the world to formulate plans to combat climate change. This year the competition took place in 12 cities, including Barcelona, Durban, Rome, Melbourne, and Milan, among others. “The aim of the competition is to find ways in which we can begin to build cities that are climate change-friendly,” Mbuthuma said.

The winning presentation

The Umgeni Interchange Team was allocated four hectares of land by the eThekwini municipality to come up with a development idea. The team members, who specialise in various fields, had to rely on each other to create a winning project. Their proposal entailed the development of a mixed-use, commercial, retail, and affordable-housing block.

“We wanted to ensure affordable housing not just for the rich but even for those who aren’t,” Mbuthuma explained. His PhD, which focuses on floods and disasters, provided guidance on ensuring that the housing block was resistant to floods and other disasters. The proposal also suggested sustainable resource use, including the use of solar panels to generate energy in order to reduce the impact of loadshedding.

Even though a victory in the competition is a great feeling, Mbuthuma is more appreciative of the opportunity to have been active in the battle for a more sustainable future. “To hear that policymakers are interested in hearing what I have to say is a big deal to me.”

Future endeavours

Although there has been a concerted effort globally to combat climate change, Mbuthuma believes that in countries such as South Africa there hasn’t been adequate discourse around how development will take place in a future defined by climate change and the resulting disasters expected. As such, he is committed to working towards normalising these conversations.

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Vice-Chancellor honoured with major awards

2013-05-02

02 May 2013

The University of the Free State (UFS) is proud to announce that Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, has been awarded a number of major awards recently.

The University of California in the United States awarded him the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance. The award is made in recognition of persons who exemplify in their work the delivery of social justice, diplomacy and tolerance in the diverse local and global society.

“The committee was very impressed with the commitment that Prof Jansen has had to reconciliation and forgiveness as a way to build bridges and to find common ground. Prof Jansen is following in the steps of many of our greatest peace-time leaders and we support his efforts to bring understanding to all cultures,” said Mark Aldenderfer, chair of the awards committee and Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Art at the University of California.

Prof Jansen also received the 2013 Academia Award at the Sixth Annual Ubuntu Lecture and Dialogue Awards Ceremony of the Turquoise Harmony Institute on 4 April 2013 in Johannesburg. The Institute aims to foster relations among different faith and cultural traditions to contribute to the well-being of humanity.

According to the organisers, “outstanding individuals who made noteworthy contributions to dialogue, peace and harmony in the society,” are given recognition during the ceremony. The awards are made in a number of different categories. Prof Jansen was among the recipients who included Graca Machel and the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF). Previous winners of Turquoise Awards include Ahmed Kathrada, Chester Williams, Dr Frene Ginwala and Prof Russel Botman.

On 10 May 2013, Prof Jansen was also honoured by Kappa Delta Pi International Honour Society in Education. He was awarded membership of the Laureate Chapter of the society founded in 1911 which “is comprised of men and women who have made distinguished contributions to education, and is limited to 60 living persons”. Prof Jansen joins an exclusive membership of 293 which includes such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jean Piaget and George Washington Carver.

Also in the United States, Prof Jansen has been invited to be Messenger Lecturer for Fall 2013 at Cornell University. He will give three lectures and interact with the students and staff of Cornell at various functions.

“This is a significant honour and it will really allow members from across the university to get a deeper appreciation of the work you are doing at UFS and in South Africa more broadly,” said Prof Judith Byfield of Cornell’s Department of History and Director of Graduate Studies at the department’s Africana Studies and Research Centre.

On the local front, City Press published its inaugural 100 World Class South Africans on 28 April 2013. During a rigorous selection process, 100 of our country’s most extraordinary citizens who have achieved world-class status were chosen. Prof Jansen’s achievements procured him a place on this prestigious list in the category: Heroes and Mavericks.

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