On Saturday 30 July 2022, Ambassador Ngonyama hosted participants in the African Business Education (ABE) Initiative for Youth at the Official Residence. The ABE Initiative was created in 2013 by the late Prime Minister ABE Shinzo, providing young people from across Africa with opportunities to pursue Master’s degrees at Japanese universities and undertake internships at Japanese enterprises. The ABE Initiative has since been upgraded to the PhD level. To date, 104 South African students have completed the Abe programme across all fields of study.
“Congratulations to Professor Tshilidzi Marwala of South Africa, on his appointment as the 7th Rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan.
Professor Marwala will take up his post on 1 March 2023; he currently serves as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg.
Professor Marwala is an accomplished scholar and thought leader with multi-disciplinary research interests that include the theory and application of artificial intelligence to engineering, computer science, finance, social science and medicine. He has an extensive track record in human capacity development and is committed to leveraging technology and global connectedness towards the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Professor Marwala has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, University of California at Berkeley, Wolfson College of the University of Cambridge and Nanjing Tech University. Furthermore, he has been a member of the International Consultative Council at the Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland, International Visiting Committee at Case Western Reserve University and a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Professor Marwala holds a doctorate specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Engineering from the University of Cambridge, a Master of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pretoria and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (magna cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University. He is a registered professional engineer, a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Science of South Africa, the African Academy of Sciences and the South African Academy of Engineering. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and a distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Ambassador Lulama Smuts Ngonyama and Ms Annelize Schroeder meet with Faf de Klerk, who has signed with the Yokohama Canon Eagles after leaving Sale Sharks at the end of last season following five years with the English Premiership club. Faf de Klerk joins several of his 2019 World Cup-winning Springbok teammates in Japan, and will line up alongside Springbok teammate Jesse Kriel at Canon, who finished 6th in the 12-team Japan Rugby League One championship last season.
Meeting between Ambassador Ngonyama and Mr Kobayashi Yu who will shortly be taking up the post of NHK correspondent in South Africa. NHK is a Japanese public broadcaster that also provides an international broadcasting service, known as NHK World-Japan.
