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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.

News Archive

We must rise again, says Dr Luescher

2016-05-04

Dr Thierry Luescher, Assistant Director of University of the Free State Directorate for Institutional Research and Academic Planning, was one of the guest speakers at the first TEDxUFS event of the year on the Bloemfontein Campus. Here he is explaining where the #movements started, and how to change the way we think. Photo: Marli du Plessis.

The student protests, known as the #MustFall movements, started on 9 March 2015, when students protested in a well-rehearsed manner at the Cecil John Rhodesstatue at the University of Cape Town. After this protest, students all over South Africa started their own movements from #OpenStellies to #SwartsMustFall, the latter happening on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) in March 2016. But, as Dr Thierry Luescher, Assistant Director of UFS Directorate for Institutional Research and Academic Planning, says: “We shall soon run out of #MustFalls. Maybe it is time that we rise again.”

The first TEDxUFS was held on Friday 15 April 2016 at the New Education Building on the Bloemfontein Campus of the UFS. Dr Luescher shone light on the way we look at hashtag movements. At the conference, he was one of the guest speakers who shared their perspectives on the theme of #ImpossibleIsNothing. The others were Ndumiso Hadebe, and Fezile Sonkwane.

Changing angles

No matter what the issue, whether it is on a campus or not, the same reaction can be expected by all: they burn things to get attention. In retrospect, this is our political culture. This is what we have been told to do if we need answers. There is a much faster and cheaper way to attract people’s attention: the hashtag movements, says Dr Luescher.

Stop the fire

He argues that we should stop burning down buildings and vandalising properties. What we need is people with intellect to use their words. We, as students, have to take back our voice. We need to stop this self-pitying, and take a stand.

Students have the power to change lives. We would be able to reach as many as 1.4 million people with our tweets or instagram accounts. According to Dr Luescher, the time for violence has come to an end.

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