A group of 22 South African students leave for Sweden in about four months time to pursue higher education studies at the World Maritime University and among these, will be Thembani Manyefane of East London – the only Eastern Cape student this year who made it in the final group.
Thembani Manyefane
Manyefane, a former high school teacher and now currently an outreach officer at the East London Museum for the last seven years will be the first of a group of masters and doctoral level students dispatched to Malmö annually to go and receive high level maritime education at the international institution – an initiative by the South African government intended to boost both education as well research and development in the country’s maritime economic sector.
A Memorandum of Understanding between South Africa and World Maritime University is expected to be finalized this month, said deputy Transport Minister, Sindisiwe Chikunga in Port Elizabeth last month.
The World Maritime University is a postgraduate maritime university founded by a United Nations agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1983.
According to its president Professor Björn Kjerfve while on a visit to Port Elizabeth recently, the education institution operates on the basis of a Charter adopted by the IMO Assembly, and is accountable to the IMO Secretary-General, Council and Assembly, and to an international Board of Governors composed of representatives of some 50 different governmental, industry, labour and educational bodies.
That is the education environment in which Eastern Cape’s maritime sector ‘whiz kid’ Manyefane, along with 21 others – including two doctoral level students – will pursue his further higher education.
In addition to teaching qualifications, Manyefane also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Maritime Studies cum laude from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. In Sweden, he will pursue a master’s level degree in the same field.
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