On 08 November 2018, the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Makwa Brokers Consultants Agency (MBCA) and Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA). The MoU is envisioned to pave the path to other third parties identified by MBCA and MDA for potential future project collaboration with CUT.

Prof. Alfred Ngowi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research Innovation and Engagement said that the vision of the institution is to be an engaged university in the areas of social and technological innovations particularly in the central region of South Africa. He also said that the collaboration will open closed doors and grant access to stakeholders whom the university could not reach out to in the past.  “When we talk about engagement, we mean in the sense of reaching out to all types of communities. We have a large experience of engaging with peer institutions both nationally and globally, but when it comes to the private sector and government organisations, we do not have much engagement, and that is part of what we aspire to achieve effectively.”

Mr Tshimane Montoedi, CEO: Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA) said that the main purpose of the MDA is to make sure that once members lose their jobs due to retrenchment or dismissals, there is alternative economic development or activities for them. “Our mandate is primarily enterprise, skills, sustainable and socio-economic development. We are working jointly with a number of institutions in the country, and the purpose of these partnerships is to ensure that we achieve our objective. We might be having different challenges, but the main challenges that confront us as a country is unemployment, inequality, poverty and lack of skills in the economy.”

He further alluded that they are making strides through partnerships as they have since assisted and touched the lives of the people in the deep rural areas through enterprise development programme, learnership programmes and agriculture programmes. “We hope that forging this new relationship with CUT will help us take our work and programmes to greater heights. We are delighted to be associated with such a credible institution. With the challenges that are facing South Africa, we can take this as an innovation hub and come up with innovative solutions to our problems.”

Mr Michael Makwa, founder of Makwa Brokers Consultants Agency (MBCA), said that their organisation serves as an exit opportunity strategy enterprise, where they focus on servicing post-graduates by nurturing and grooming them, making them ready for entrepreneurship or labour market. “Together with CUT, we intend to look into fine-tuning and commercialisation of selected intellectual products of note. We are looking forward to bringing our efforts together to trigger a wave of industrialisation initiatives in various sectors. The 4^th Industrial Revolution will also be explored as it has become the midwife of technology advancement. Therefore, we will produce only quality products and services from these initiatives. Today we are taking a very first step towards our mutual goal. It is going to be a journey full of experiences. Let us celebrate these first steps of this journey for they will grow into giant steps that  will make us better citizens of this world.”

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Joining hands to a brighter future are from left: Mr Michael Makwa founder of Makwa Brokers Consultants Agency (MBCA), Mr Tshimane Montoedi, CEO: Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA), Prof. Henk de Jager, Vice-Chancellor and Principal and Prof. Alfred Ngowi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research Innovation and Engagement.