MEDIA STATEMENT

COMMUNITY SAFETY AND LIAISON MR. B. H. CELE AT A MEDIA BRIEFING HELD AT THE HILTON HOTEL, DURBAN ON THURSDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER 2005 ON THE 2ND AFRICA TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER CONFERENCE

KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison Mr. B. H. Cele is proud to host the 2nd Africa Technology Transfer Conference to be held at its Head Office Pietermaritzburg, 172 Burger Street on 20 -23 September 2005 under the theme "Transportation Technology Transfer for Africa's Renaissance".

The conference will take the form of an opening ceremony; the official opening of the Technology Transfer Centre, plenaries, and parallel technical sessions on a number of papers received world wide, technical tours, and will close with a Gala Dinner at the Golden Horse Casino.

The Minister of Transport, Mr. J Radebe, the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, all MEC's of Transport in South Africa, Members of Parliament, Members of the Provincial Legislatures, delegates from International and African countries will be in attendance at the opening ceremony on 20 September. The Minister of Transport will deliver an opening address, whilst the Premier will deliver a welcoming address at this auspicious occasion.

The T2 concept was initiated by the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to provide a forum for cost effective transfer of transportation technologies to local and state government transportation departments. "The Technology Transfer Centre is aimed at ensuring that there are technical, scientific and engineering solutions to the challenges facing rural road development in the country.

Building on the success of T2 Centres in the US, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) started to export the idea to other continents especially South American and Africa. At present there are many T2 Centres in Latin America, Africa and the former Eastern Europe

The first Technology Transfer Centre in South Africa was established in 1996 when the National Department of Transport signed an agreement with the US Federal Highway Administration. The centre is currently run by the South African National Road Agency (SANRAL) on behalf of the Department of Transport. The second T2 Centre was started at the Transportation division of the CSIR in 2000.

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport signed a Memorandum of Understanding with FHWA in 2000 to start the first of the provincial T2 Centres. It was envisaged at that stage that the KZN T2 Centre would assist in expanding the T2 Centre concept to other provinces.

Since its inception in 2000 the T2 Centre in the KZN Department of Transport has established itself as a major provider of technology transfer services for the department and for external customers. Services provided by the T2 Centre include: -

• Developing & facilitating technical training
• Collaborating with external service providers to facilitate courses
• Providing mentorship training to graduate engineers
• Supporting other activities aimed at encouraging study of maths and science by high school learners.
• Providing experiential training to S3 Technikon students to enable them complete their studies.
• Carrying out and/or co-ordinating research on issues of interest to the department
• Managing departmental infrastructure system
• Managing the technical resource centre

As I serve upon the mandate of defending the weak and to ensure that we rise up and build KwaZulu Natal, this conference is set to achieve resolutions to all challenges that exist in transportation technology. The current dispensation requires citizens with unique skills; the conference will provide a forum for exchange of experiences and ideas relevant to the transfer of skills thus achieving objectives of African Renaissance in theory and in practice.

Public transport remains a challenge in the province. A challenge we are prepared to resolve peacefully, we will be presenting a paper on public transport during the conference so as to benchmark our activities to the world. The T2 centre is aimed at providing skills development relevant to transport planning to municipalities, some municipalities are still faced with a challenge of developing transport planning as a constitutional mandate.

The centre therefore improves the work of government programmes that are aimed at addressing the backlog of the country's road network, including poverty alleviation, job creation and wealth generation programmes like the highly acclaimed labour intensive Zibambele road maintenance and Vukuzakhe road construction programmes. Through technology transfer our emerging contractors have been empowered with technical training thus acquiring building skills, soil testing skills and understanding technical drawings.

We shall utilise the perfect timing of the conference to our advantage to ensure that women and youth benefit accordingly so as to bridge the gap and consolidate all the gains in strategically preparing for future challenges as we prepare to host our first Soccer World Cup.

back