South Africa's Education Minister Naledi Pandor will host her Brics counterparts in Cape Town this week -- to discuss ways of collaborating and exchanging educational knowledge, ahead of the trade and economic Brics summit in Johannesburg at the end of the month. René Del Carme has more.

Around 200 delegates of the Brics Network University gathered at Stellenbosch University, near Cape Town - a university which is steeped in a history of colonialism and Apartheid. But when it turned a hundred years old recently, the university said it acknowledged its contribution to racial, cultural and linguistic exclusionism in South Africa.

And was committed to redressing the injustices of the past.

Many Stellenbosch University students have already benefited from The Brics Network University, through exchange programs in other Brics countries, such as China.

PROF. LIU XUEMEI, HEAD CHINESE DELEGATION "Although we are thousands of miles apart, we have so many diligent and intelligent experts and scholars. We have the responsibility to cultivate high talent to promote technological innovation and ensure sustainable development. We share that wonderful vision, of moving from marginal to world class status, whose common dreams have brought us together and made us good friends and good partners."

BUTI MANAMELA, DEPUTY MINISTER HIGHER EDUCATION, SOUTH AFRICA "And one of the things which we believe is that whatever comes out of here should not only be confined within the parameters of Brics countries. We believe as a country, that we also have a responsibility for the more than billion people in the continent. And therefore, our collaboration with Brics countries also means, you know the decisions which we make, the collaborative decisions which we make and the interactions which we make, would also yield positively in the development of our own continent."

Some delegates said the Brics Network University also needed to address huge challenges facing Brics, such as, what they called "the unilateralism" of the Trump Administration in the United States.

DR. OSCAR VAN HEERDEN SENIOR DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG "Already we are beginning to feel the impact of the negative policies of the trump administration. And for a forum like this, it's about what are the actual elements that we need to research and study, in order to avoid this kind of global order."

RENE DEL CARME STELLENBOSCH, SOUTH AFRICA "Some delegates said the most important part of the Brics Network University initiative was that it had educators and other stakeholders in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa talking about transforming institutions of higher learning in their respective countries. The fourth Brics Network University Conference will be held in Brazil in 2019. René Del Carme, CGTN, Stellenbosch, South Africa."