Rapid Prototype Training and Testing Facility officially opened at NWU

Added: 2026-05-03

[00:00:00]Now Deputy Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Dr. Naledi Pandor, officially opened the rapid prototype training and testing facility and handed it over the mobile hydrogen refueling station at Northwest University's Potchefstroom campus. This underscores a significant milestone in South Africa's just energy transition, hydrogen economy development, and net zero carbon ambitions. For more, we cross to our reporter, Synthia Lesufi. A very good morning to you, Synthia. A significant milestone indeed, as stated there in that text, insofar as it comes to our efforts for zero carbon emission. Just share with us everything that has taken place thus far.

[00:00:41]Absolutely, a significant milestone for us as a nation as well as an African continent. Looking at ways to keep away from fossil fuels and their high carbon emissions and looking at clean and green energy through hydrogen production. You remember, simplified hydrogen is just extracted from water, splitting the water molecules to extract the hydrogen, and the only negative byproduct there would be water vapor, making this one of the cleanest technologies that we can actually imagine. Now, we've seen demonstrations from the university showing us here how the fuel is actually, you know, derived from here, the cells, and then injected into this vehicle, making it an absolutely brilliant, clean, and efficient type of technology. But for a better understanding on how this machine works, I'm going to ask the director general just to start the vehicle and see if it indeed works.

[00:01:31]Good morning to you and your your viewers. Yes, you can see it's already started. It's it's quiet, it's silent. You can if we're on the road, it it would be moving now. Absolutely.

[00:01:45]This is the clean, efficient technologies that we are talking about.

[00:01:48]They're leading the hydrogen roadmap in the country. Let's talk about this private public partnership together with our university representative. What is it meant to do for our hydrogen roadmap?

[00:02:00]No, thank you very much. As you correctly said, South Africa has this, what do you call it, South African society roadmap. Its intention is to make sure that we use science, technology, and innovation to make advances in our journey for a just transition.

[00:02:18]So, we're very pleased with the partnership with the involving the University of Northwest University, Toyota. We're sitting here. Toyota has invested about 19 million. And the facilities that the refueling facility that we have you have seen and the car we're sitting in, it's it's sponsored by Toyota, but also the African Rainbow Minerals is also partnering. It's a it's a useful model demonstrating why we need public-private partnerships. And if we can strengthen those partnerships, they will take us uh way forward. Of course, transport. We know transport contributes uh significantly to carbon emissions. And therefore, this initiative is meant to help us decarbonize and make the country to be, you know, becoming really just transition. So, that's really why we we here. And speaking about the involvement of key industries, we expect to see that there will be skills development and expansion of job opportunities as well.

[00:03:24]Well, of course, you know, the one of the reasons why university universities I I utilize and especially Northwest and others who are part of our hydrogen South Africa the strategy is precisely to make sure that we develop young talent and nature that talent. But we also support researchers because it is through research that our academics continuously find discoveries that then eventually help in the commercialization side. So, with the industry's involvement is critical because here we're demonstrating, we're piloting, and we can see the successes of pilots would lead to the commercialization and eventually to job creation, and that's what we are hoping.

[00:04:17]It's about impact, it's about positive outcomes. Uh but it requires a lot of investment, lot of collaboration, lot of belief and trust. And we're grateful that our industry is demonstrating uh and again, the challenge of investing in our end in research and development is that it takes time. And we therefore need to appreciate and stay to the course. And also, we need to have incentives, and that's what government does through our Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation. We've got incentive schemes uh that are meant to ensure derisking, you know, of certain initiatives. It's it's quite important.

[00:04:56]What we are looking forward to positive impacts. Positive positive impacts that we're all looking forward to in the expansion of the hydrogen roadmap. From us here, I'm hopefully going to get a ride in this green energy vehicle and tell you more about it later on. From us here at the Potchefstroom campus of the Northwest University, back to you, studio. All right, Synthia. I'm sure you will get a ride. That's our reporter there, Synthia Lesufi, out in the Northwest.