Sizwe Nxasana, the Founder and CEO of Future Nation Schools and Chairman of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) recently delivered a keynote address at the annual Dr Richard Maponya Lecture on Thursday, 8 November 2018 at Auckland Park Kingsway Campus.

Mr. Nxasana highlighted the importance of education, especially at an early age and spoke about the importance of technology in the educational sector.

“South Africa needs to rethink its education system and adopt a vastly different approach to learning in order to adequately equip students for the future in the ever-evolving digital age. These are some of the fundamentals that need to be addressed,” added Mr. Nxasana.

The annual lecture was organised under the theme “Entrepreneurship” and was organised by the Johannesburg Business School (JBS) under the helm of Director, Prof Lyal White.

Also speaking at the event was Mr Roy Maponya, CEO of the Dr Richard Maponya Institute for Entrepreneurship, who said this lecture aims to prove the need for skills development in entrepreneurship while focusing on the life of Dr Maponya, fondly known to South Africans as the father of township business. “It serves to question how skills development, through entrepreneurship, could contribute to mitigating South Africa’s number one economic conundrum, to address the challenges of poverty, inequality, and unemployment,” he said.

“The primary objective of the institution is to develop skills among young, learner entrepreneurs in diverse sectors of the economy, and to also address the high unemployment rate. The aim is to be able to inspire more students to start their own businesses one day and become entrepreneurs,” said Roy Maponya.

Dr Richard Maponya is an entrepreneur and property developer, a successful pioneer in the business sphere. He is best known for having built a highly successful business empire despite the restrictions of apartheid. He is now the proud owner of the Maponya Mall, established at the end of 2007, in Soweto.

This lecture received impressive support from different key industry stakeholders of UJ. Some of the notable attendees included Former President of South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe.