Dream shot for focused EC student

A NELSON Mandela Metropolitan University student has been given an opportunity many could only wish for after being nominated for a regional leadership programme set up by US President Barak Obama.

Siboniso Dlamini, 22, a postgraduate Maritime Studies student at NMMU, returned this week from a regional meeting held in Johannesburg after he had been nominated to the Regional Leadership Centre of Southern Africa (RCLSA).

The RCLSA forms part of the Young African Leaders Initiative (Yali) programme set up by Obama in 2010 which seeks to invest in the next generation of African leaders.

Dlamini said he was happy and excited to be nominated for the programme and would be participating in the public management and governance cohort for the next month.

“After I applied, about a month later I was shortlisted and invited for an interview. It was not an easy interview. At first I didn’t believe it … I didn’t even tell the people I was working with,” he said.

Dlamini said it was a “rare opportunity” to be involved in the initiative which, according to him, looks at “creative solutions” of how to develop the African continent.

With a national diploma in economics from NMMU and as the national board member and deputy treasurer of the Green Campus Initiative (GCI), Dlamini said he, along with his counterparts in the initiative, would be analysing what would be the next best step forward in assessing ways to improve various communities across the African continent.

“As a collective we look at how to develop Africa [and] how applicable and feasible our ideas are.”

Dlamini said by the age of 30 he hoped to be in a managerial position, preferably in the maritime sector, “not because I want the power [but because] there are a lot of things I can do to improve the lives of others”.

He said his motivation stemmed from the people he associated himself with and that “whatever life gives me I must be ready and I must be prepared”.

The RLC SA initiative aims to develop the skills of young African leaders by providing core training in contemporary African issues as well as specialised training in three key areas, namely business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership and public management. —