KwaZulu-Natal Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube has applauded the recent memorandum of understanding (MoU) between her department’s Ithala Development Finance Corporation and the Durban University of Technology (DUT).

The signing, according to Dube-Ncube, will promote the acquisition of knowledge required to redevelop and reconstruct the economy of the province.

Dube-Ncube said her province is determined to skill entrepreneurs to become drivers of job creation in various sectors of the KwaZulu-Natal economy as projected through the Provincial Growth and Development Plan.

The MoU will foster the development and equipping of highly skilled human capital and match those skills to regional and national priority sectors; create new business opportunities and add value to small and medium-sized enterprises and companies in technology and knowledge-based sectors; enhance the synergy between industry, government and DUT's academic research; foster entrepreneurship and incubate new innovative companies; and provide collaborative spaces to bring together different emerging knowledge companies, organisations and communities.

Dube-Ncube's department is working to resuscitate KwaZulu-Natal’s economy and attract foreign investors. She said the agreement marked the beginning of the skills revolution.

She thanked Ithala CEO Pearl Bengu and her team as well as DUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Thandwa Mthembu and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation & Engagement Professor Sibusiso Moyo for their commitment to the MoU.

“With Covid-19 having devastated our economy, we are focusing on the quality of human capital being produced to turn around the situation. A modern knowledge-economy we are building demands human resources that are numerically and scientifically literate, technology fluent and skilled at problem solving,” Dube-Ncube said.