The Pan Afrikanist Watchman

Guests at the official launch of the multimillion Pula University Innovation Pod (UniPod) at University of Botswana were caught off-guard on Monday 16th December 2024 when the UB Staff Workers Union (UBASSU) pulled off a surprise picket on Vice Chancellor David Norris.

Deliberately timed and designed to embarrass the VC, Professor David Norris, who has endured scathing attacks from the Staff Union ever since he introduced a new strategy to propel the University from a ‘substandard college’ to a High Performance Organisation (HPO), the picket turned into a big flop.

The small group of timid-looking men and women brandishing placards denouncing Norris and the HPO, stealthily gathered at the eastern side of the marquee, while Prof Norris was delivering the welcome remarks and stood the entire period of the speech after which they quietly left, just as they had come.

Their placards bore the messages – down with HPO, sack Norris, norrispect for staff, and others.

While the picketing momentarily drew the attention of the guests, among whom were the Assistant Minister of Higher Education, Justin Hunyepa, the UN Assistant Secretary General and Regional Director for UNDP Africa, Ahunna Eziakonwa and a host of Ambassadors and foreign dignitaries, it may just have boomeranged.

That is if the VC decides to take disciplinary action against the picketers for staging an ‘unlawful’ demonstration.

In his remarks, Prof Norris explained that the UniPod was a space dedicated to fostering creativity, collaboration, and ground-breaking solutions to Botswana and Africa’s development challenges.

The UniPod Initiative is part of the new UNDP Africa Timbuktoo Initiative, a new development model bridging the gap between research and development on the one hand, and product creation on the other, to ensure that Africa’s youth are the catalysts sparking the continent’s industrial drive.

And this is the message that resonates with the youth, many of who comprise the innovators and co-creators in the UniPod.

Norris said the UniPod Project is multi-pronged and focuses on supporting and growing innovative, scalable, and impactful entrepreneurship by African young people, while relying on a springboard of partners – UNDP, BIUST and Ministry of Education- who together contribute meaningfully to building an African youth innovation and start-up ecosystem, and they aim to encourage students in universities to engage in innovation and design thinking.

Indeed, this was demonstrated by a group of young BIUST graduates – who have developed a fertilizer (fertex-bio fertilizer) using hair, and are hoping to tap into the UniPod Fund to capitalize their start-up, Forechem.

Norris explained that setting up the UniPod at the University of Botswana will provide the platform for fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity to support youth, private sector and industry, while providing a comprehensive approach and space to facilitate the ideation and development of inclusive, collaborative and sustainable home-grown innovations aimed at addressing Botswana and ultimately Africa’s developmental challenges.

The UniPod, he said, is not just a physical space, but a living, breathing incubator for ideas that will shape the world.

For her part Eziakonwa described the UniPod as a place where creativity knows no limits and where solutions are not just imagined but built, tested, and refined.

In this space, students, researchers, and communities will be empowered to think boldly and to experiment with new ideas that have the potential to transform industries, communities, and the world.

Whether it’s developing cutting-edge technologies, designing sustainable solutions, or advancing social change, the UniPod will serve as a launch-pad for the ideas that will define the future.

She said the challenges of the future will require solutions that are not only innovative but inclusive and representative of the broadest spectrum of ideas.

“That is why we encourage every member of this university community to take full advantage of this incredible resource”.

But beyond the practical work that will unfold here, there is a deeper, more profound goal: to cultivate a mindset. A mindset that sees challenges as opportunities, that encourages risk-taking, and that values failure as part of the process of learning.

And when he rose to officially launch the UniPod, Assistant Minister Hunyepa addressed the picketing by the small group of staff workers, saying it was their democratic and constitutional right to express their grievances, and in accord with President Boko’s call for the aggrieved to freely express their grievances.

Hunyepa also commended VC Norris for allowing the workers to picket and also urged him to go and sit with them at the table to discuss their problems.

The University student community has consistently stood by the Vice Chancellor’s side in this schism, as they see him as a visionary focused on transforming the University to world class standard.

(C) TPA2024