The Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SABELA L. Brands Group on 29 October 2020 at the CUT Welkom Campus. The initiative is a part of CUT working towards positioning itself as a leading African university through partnerships.

CUT Councillor Nomsa Mosuwe, said “It’s very important as universities to partner with brands like yours [SABELA], to ensure that the education we provide our future leaders is addressing macro-economic and socio-economic imperatives. You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it and as an institution of higher learning we want to go after it with a club of people of like-mindedness.”

Mosuwe added that partnering with business ensures that when students graduate, there is a place for them in the corporate sector. “Technology is what we embrace to drive our strategy, because from first and second year, we want to position our students that before they finish their studies they are identified by brands. So that we proactively and decisively address unemployment. We identify students while they are doing their second year and we go to brands such as yours [SABELA] to say you are specialising in food, how can we partner from a research and development point of view, to address your problems. And then place these students that are providing innovative ideas proactively to your institutions so that you warm up to them, and probably before they even finish their studies, they will be employees. That is the strategy moving forward,” said CUT Councillor Mosuwe.

Norbert Nyamsi, from Sabela L Brands Group added that they are partnering with CUT as they want to make a purposeful impact. “There is a lot of research and you have so much knowledge, but we are not focusing on theory, we’re focused on the practical. We have identified two lacks within our own existence, social and economic, we are profit-making we are not here for charity, but we are willing to extend from a social perspective, we will invest our know-how and our resources,” said Nyamsi.

Sabela L. Brands Group has pledged to fully fund campus projects both in Bloemfontein and in Welkom, within the next 6 to 9 months, aiming to make an impact in the community.

Caption

Front: Lindiwe Nyamsi, CEO of SABELA L. Brands Group; Prof. Alfred Ngowi, CUT Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement; Cllr Nomsa Mosuwe, CUT Councillor.

Back: Mr Norbert Nyamsi, SABELA L. Brands Group; Dr Johnson Lulua, Chairman of Sabela L Brands Group; Mr Molefi Motsoeneng, CUT Technical Officer: Technology & Innovation and Prof. Solomon Makola CUT Welkom Campus Director.