Africa-Press – Botswana. Creative minds should be able to translate waste into products and promote circularity in resource usage.
This was said by the Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Ms Nnaniki Makwinja, at the launch of the Industrial Design Degree show at the University of Botswana (UB) on July 28.
Ms Makwinja implored industrial designers to address the issue of pollution and waste in the country as landfills were a challenge to manage and have become a source of pollution.
“Look at the challenges of waste and the opportunities of a circular economy through the lens of design because there is literally gold in waste.
Add your design education to that humble effort and you will be impressed how many people could be employed in such a high value product business,” said Ms Makwinja.
She commended the UB community for putting together an academic design exhibition of a high scale and implored them to bring together the design community to have a national design exhibition that would enrich the industry.
For his part, UB vice chancellor Prof. David Norris, stated that from the inception of a fully-fledged innovation, the degree show reflected the hard work and dedication of the students.
“I am happy that our students hold so much potential to serve the needs of the SMME’s and resource challenged farmers,” he said.
Prof. Norris also said that in an innovation economy, knowledge was applied together with innovation and entrepreneurship to drive economic growth.
“I call upon those with financial capital or muscle to invest in some of these innovations to nurture creativity and foster an environment where young minds can strive,” he added.
The best three prototypes of the Industrial Design and Technology Degree Show 2023 were awarded to Mr Omphile Malobela who made a fertiliser spreader, Mr Lincoln Magosi made a motorised sprayer while Ms Botho Chabaditsile designed a bean flasher.
Mr Malobela, a Bachelor of Arts Degree holder in Design and Technology and winner of the UB Degree Show 2023, stated that he had gone out to the farms to identify the challenges that the farmers faced on a day to day basis hence he designed the fertiliser spreader prototype.
“I noticed that most farmers if not all use their hands to spread fertilisers in their fields and consequently causing them backaches and elongated periods of work, and so I made this prototype to solve such challenges,” said Mr Malobela.
He further encouraged other designers to go all out in designing products that would address challenges faced by Batswana on daily basis.
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