The Department of Student Affairs (DSA) has committed to conserve water.

The DSA signed a water saving pledge, along with the City of Cape Town (CoCT) and the Department of Water Affairs (DWA).

The pledge forms part of Water Month Celebrations, an initiative of the City that aims to raise awareness of the importance of sustaining the country’s water resources.

Dean of Student Affairs, Cora Motale says CPUT is an institution that creates futures, and thus will play a crucial role in ensuring that there are adequate water resources for future generations.

“We are pledging that we will conserve water and respect it,” she says.

The pledge will see CPUT work closely with the City and the DWA in conserving water.

The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services, Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg says it is vital that all members of society play a proactive role in conserving water.

He says the pledge is important for the City as it will raise awareness of water related issues amongst students.

“We hope that students will take what they learnt at university and apply it in their homes and their future workplaces,” he says.

Representatives from the DWA commended CPUT for making a commitment to sustain the country’s water resources.

By Candes Keating

Written by CPUT News

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A donation by the City of Cape Town, including essential food items and hygiene products, will greatly benefit students in need.

The 30 boxes of food hampers and 30 women’s vanity bags will aid 60 students.

The food hampers include mealie meal, lentils, flour, oil, pilchards, tea bags, soap, peanut butter, milk and many other items while the vanity bags include sanitary towels and toiletries.

“The donation will really go a long way for the students that will benefit. Our aim as an institution and our role as the Student Affairs Division is to ensure that we remove life’s impediments, where possible, to enable students to concentrate on their academic and co-curricular pursuits. This is so that they can excel in their personal journey of overall success. This donation contributes towards achieving this,” said Tulani Nkuntse, Deputy Dean of Student Affairs.

The donation will benefit students who have been identified as needing assistance and do not receive any form of financial aid or belong to the so-called ‘missing middle’ with their parents struggling to meet the costs of their studies.

“This situation has become more acute during the lockdown period associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, as many of these students have come forward to declare their dire position of suffering from hunger, apparently as the pandemic has also had the effect of diminishing the capacity of their parents or guardians to provide for them.”

The Marketing and Communication Department acted as the liaison between the City of Cape Town and the Student Affairs Division.

“We are very grateful for the generosity and care the City of Cape Town has shown to our institution, in particular our students. We welcome and appreciate the support and partnerships. We are certainly looking forward to growing the partnership in other areas as well.”

Nkuntse said talks had already started on how the City of Town and CPUT can collaborate on a few programmes, one of which is to revive the vegetable garden situated on the Bellville campus.

“We are extremely excited about this initiative as it was a project initiated and solely run by our students under the Green Campus Initiative.”

The University has, on two previous occasions during lockdown Levels 5 and 4, provided support in the form of food parcels to 420 and 520 unfunded students in need, respectively. The Student Affairs Division carried out this exercise in conjunction with the Financial Aid office, as well as the Advancement Department.

“Also, on these previous two occasions, funding for the food parcels has been sourced solely from the Vice-Chancellor’s discretionary budget, which may be an unsustainable option if the intervention is to continue into the foreseeable future,” he said.

The University has since set up a Task Team to look into the matter of food security in its entirety on CPUT campuses, specifically looking at a holistic and sustainable programme to address this need.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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A multi-stakeholder training and internship initiative to address critical skills shortages in the Information and Communication Technology sector was recently launched by the City of Cape Town together with the Cape IT Initiative, Oracle, IBM, and CenCRA/ CPUT.

Thirty unemployed, predominantly Black African graduates, have been offered a scholarship, which will see them complete a five-month certification training course in software development. On completion of the training, they will be employed as interns by industry.

According to Jenny McKinnell of Capaciti1000, the programme initiators, Cape IT Initiative, worked closely with the Khayelitsha Community Trust, Avenir Education, Working Technologies as well as with CenCRA (Centre for CIO Research in Africa, which is facilitating the training at CPUT), to recruit and vet candidates for the programme.

She said all candidates had to pitch themselves to industry before being accepted onto the programme.

Melinda Walker, of the City of Cape Town, said they had come a long way in IT. ‘’When we became a City at the end of 2000 we could not send an e-mail from one part of the city to another. We now have a brilliant IT department’’.

She commended CPUT and the City for all the work they have put in this initiative. ‘’Your programs are going to have a significant impact on this initiative and the IT field in general’’.

McKinnell said the City of Cape Town contributed R348 000 for this programme of which a large portion will be used to cover the transport costs of the candidates, the majority of which would not otherwise be able to afford to attend the training. Training sponsorship at a market value of R40 000 per candidate has also been leveraged from multinational IT vendors, IBM and Oracle.

‘’In addition, candidates will be placed with industry for at least six months after the training, and industry will contribute a further R630 000 in stipends. This means the total funding leveraged from industry as a result of the programme will be R 1.89 million,” said McKinnell.

By Thami Nkwanyane

Written by CPUT News
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Landfill gas, with its high methane content, can pose a threat to humans through explosions, combustion or asphyxiation.

This was the focus of the Landfill Gas Harvesting workshop that took place at the CPUT auditorium on the Bellville campus recently.

The workshop was organised by the Waste Management students as part of their assessment on 7 October 2009.

This was the first landfill gas harvesting workshop in Cape Town

The workshop focused on creating awareness about the dangers of methane gas which may be the result of a gas that comes out of landfills.

Also, the event showed attendees what has been previously done regarding the landfill gas, what is currently underway and what may be possible in the future.

The Waste Management department emphasised that there is a significant amount of money that can be made by operators through mining landfill liabilities and turn them into garbage gold

Jacob Seccona, CPUT Environmental Department’s head said: “This is the first workshop ever organised in CPUT. We need more workshops like these in order to create awareness at municipalities as it is only Ethekwini Municipality that is doing something about landfill gas harvesting.”

CPUT’s Environmental Management Department, which presents the Waste Management course to environmental officers who come from all over the country, helped the students organise the workshop.

Kagisho Motingwe, a student who also works for the City of Cape Town as a principal technician, was the steering committee manager for the workshop.

“Putting together this workshop was an assignment on its own for us as it is part of the continuous evaluation of students, which forms part of the year mark,” said Motingwe.

The workshop targeted municipalities, non-governmental organisations and private sector entities involved in waste management in general, but specifically landfill management and subsequently expanded to students as well.

Motingwe said the objective of the workshop was to create a discussion around landfill gas in South Africa, and to stimulate that relevant guest speakers were invited.

Five speakers shared the stage, touching on the social and environmental externalities of landfill gas, carbon loads and carbon credits, civil impact on landfill gas harvesting and also creating a climate for innovation and change.

According to Motingwe, the idea behind the workshop was to look at the economic side of landfill gas harvesting, the social side and the ethical side of it.

Among the guest speakers was CPUT’s lecturer Dr Lee-Anne Seeliger who spoke around the ethical side of landfill gas.

By Andiswa Dantile

Written by CPUT News
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With the issue of poor service delivery constantly under the spotlight, a CPUT lecturer is putting plans in place to launch a student chapter of the South African Association of Public Administration and Management (SAAPAM).

SAAPAM is a national body that promotes good governance and effective service delivery through the advancement of professionalism, scholarship and practice in Public Management.

Currently its members only consist of academics from higher education institutions and public service practitioners.

However, Peter Veeran, a Public Management lecturer, who is the head of the Western Cape chapter of the Association, is planning to extend membership to Public Management students.

Veeran said by launching a student chapter they will be able to hold seminars, workshops, training sessions and discussions with students on issues of service delivery in the workplace.

“We want to develop a cadre of students who will go into the public sector and who will provide an efficient and effective service,” he said.

Veeran said if students are passionate about their careers they will do well in their jobs and contribute to promote a better quality of life for the community they serve.

The Western Cape student chapter will be the second to be launched. The institutes’ first student chapter was launched in 2007 in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Veeran said the Western Cape student chapter will be launched during the first term of 2010.

“I have already run the idea by students and they are very excited,” he said.

The student chapter will fall under the Western Cape chapter and will be open to students from all higher education Institutions in the province.

Currently Veeran is on a robust drive to increase membership of the Western Cape chapter.

He recently met with staff members of Provincial Parliament, the Premiers Office and the City of Cape Town to raise awareness of the chapter.

Veeran is also putting plans in place to deliver a presentation on the Association to staff members at Parliament in Cape Town.

“I am using every opportunity to promote SAAPAM,” he said.

By Candes Keating

Written by CPUT News
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Imitha Yelanga Children’s Home has become the latest beneficiary of one of the Anglo Residence’s social responsibility activities, after the home was given food and clothes as part of a donation.

Anglo Residence, one of CPUT’s residences at the Bellville campus, in conjunction with the City of Cape Town, visited the home in Eerste Rivier on 28 August 2009.

About 25 people, who included the residence’s house committee and students and others from different residences of CPUT at the Bellville campus, took part in the initiative.

The outreach is part of the residence’s activities for the year, which among many includes social responsibility.

The group donated groceries amounting to more than R3000, which included meat, drinks and toiletries. Other donations were clothes that were collected by students who reside at Anglo Residence.

The main purpose of the visit was to interact with and give love to the children. The group also prepared lunch for the children, which was served after school by the students.

According to Bulelwa Dlephu, the residence coordinator, they decided to identify needy homes as part of their outreach programme.

Dlephu said: “We decided to rope in the City of Cape Town as they are in a good position to identify these homes. We were specific to them as we said we wanted the neediest home around Cape Town and Imitha Yelanga Children’s Home was the one.”

The residence started planning for the project at the beginning of the year and it was agreed that each student would donate R10.

“We later discovered that R10 was not going to be enough as Anglo Residence is one of the smallest residences here, and then we decided to ask people outside.

“We went almost to every department and we were also asking our friends that are outside the institution. Through patience from our side and much cooperation from the students, our project was very successful,” said Dlephu.

The City of Cape Town did not only identify the neediest home, but also offered to transport the group to and from the Bellville campus to Eerste Rivier.

Imitha Yelanga Children’s Home was started in 2000 by Ms Cordelia Woniwe who couldn’t stand seeing children being dumped by their parents on a daily basis.

She now looks after 11 children that she gets through the Department of Social Services.

Responding to CPUT students for their donation, Ms Woniwe said: “I thank you for coming here; you have really made a difference. You have brought hope and joy to these children.”

She continued by saying that: “Working with children from different backgrounds is not an easy task. Some of these children were dumped on the highways and I feel it is my responsibility to give them the love that they didn’t get from their biological parents”.

Woniwe used to work as a domestic worker before deciding that her destiny was taking care of the children.

The Anglo Residence has many activities in the pipeline and plans to visit more homes in the future.

“If things were easier for us, we would adopt the Imitha Yelanga Children’s home, but for now we can’t promise anything. We’ll keep on doing the best where we can,” Dlephu concluded.

By Andiswa Dantile

Written by CPUT News
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The City of Cape Town in partnership with three of the four universities operating under the banner of the Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC) recently held a workshop at CPUT with a view to exploring ways in which the partnership can deliver required skills for staff of the City of Cape Town.

The main objective was to come up with a regional Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) model as opposed to each institution using its own RPL process.

The workshop, held at the IT Centre on the Bellville Campus on 19 August 2009, served as a platform for constructive engagement with RPL practices related to the skills development and training needs of staff in the City of Cape Town.

Delegates from the City of Cape Town, CPUT, the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) explored innovative RPL programmes and discussed proposals to enhance further provision of RPL services for eligible staff in future.

Nasima Badsha, CEO of CHEC, gave a brief background of the project. Alan Ralphs of UWC mentioned that universities have already taken certain steps. The workshop’s task was to widen the scope by talking about RPL and exchanging ideas about implementing the planned project.

Yolanda Scholtz, Strategic HR: Human Capital Development at the City of Cape Town, said the city had gone through a skills audit in which 90% of management staff participated and were assessed.

She said strengths, weaknesses and gaps to be filled were identified in the process and the role of RPL became clear. She also mentioned that there are people with certain skills who don’t have the qualifications in Accounting that government would need them to have by the year 2013. Staff at supervisory level were also neglected although this was “the most important level in getting the job done.”

Three universities made presentations in which they stated what they have done so far and what they intend doing in future.

At the end it was agreed that there was a need for collaborative planning and implementation of progra between the City of Cape Town and the three institutions. There was a common feeling that there needs to be a central advice and referral office to either be based at the CHEC or City Council’s offices. The office would also deal with program specific information, mentoring, support and tracking, and policy frameworks.

It was also agreed that an invitation be extended to the Office of the Premier (Provincial Government) to join in the project. A working committee of the participating institutions was to continue its work in the implementation of these resolutions.

By Thami Nkwanyane

Written by CPUT News
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Internationalisation has become an entrenched feature in higher education, where students and staff exchange opportunities, collaborative online learning, and collaborative qualification offerings have become the norm.

As such, the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences (FBMS) recently hosted a three-day International Week at Granger Bay and Bellville campuses. The event was attended by the Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships Directorate, national and international academic, industry partners, and government representatives, both in person and online.

The industry partners included: ABSA, Sea Harvest and the South African Institute for Government Auditors. The government officials were from the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape provincial government. Speaking at the event, Assistant Dean: Teaching and Learning: FBMS, Prof Desiree Scholtz, said the benefits of these endeavours are unparalleled in creating life-long learning experiences. Scholtz said the operative word “here being ‘experience’ since the experience of being abroad is a life-long encounter”.

“Internationalisation opens new vistas of thinking, knowing, and doing that no theoretical learning can offer. The CPUT, and more importantly here, the FBMS has a growing number of partnerships in the Euro Zone, BRICS countries, Africa, and Canada with additional agreements being signed on a regular basis,” she noted.

Scholtz said the value assigned to internationalisation endeavours extends beyond developing academic prowess. “While the exchange of learning, teaching and curriculum is important to advance the academic agenda, we have found that personal engagement results in long-standing partnerships between departments and our faculty,” she said.

During the proceedings, delegates were given a slot to present an overview of their institutions. This started with the hosts, followed by other institutions such as the University of the Western Cape, the Polytechnic University of Porto, Portugal, the University of South Africa, and many more.

Reflecting on the conference, the organising committee chair, Andiswa Mrasi, said the FBMS Hybrid International Week is an annual event hosted by the FMBS.

Mrasi said the event's primary purpose is to create a platform where practitioners in the field of international education engage on important topics to enhance this discipline and share best practices. Mrasi, who is also a manager: Strategic Initiatives and Projects: FBMS, said: “This year, which marked the second Hybrid FBMS International Week was once again a resounding success. We were particularly pleased to witness the participation of local institutions.”

One of the event's highlights was the participation of local and international institutions, and the workshop on Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), presented by Dr Pieter Steenkamp from the Marketing Department and Simon Kavanagh from Kaospilot, Denmark.

“We are encouraged to see the growth in engagements pertaining to Internationalisation,” said Mrasi.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce

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CPUT with its community of 40 000 staff and students is doing its bit to support waste management in the City of Cape Town.

The university recently adopted a three-bin system which encourages staff and students to sort their waste into organic, general and recycling bins. This simple act is expected to deviate tons of waste from already overburdened landfills.

Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management in the City of Cape Town, Grant Twigg, says CPUT’s proactiveness in waste sorting will reap big benefits.

“Waste Management is a challenge yet it’s such a big part of our lives. The fact is that the more waste can be sorted at source then that means more money for CPUT and that funds flow back to students,” he says.

“The land we dedicate to landfills could be used for housing. At the end of the day every small initiative will have a big impact.”

The waste sorting initiative is part of the Vice-Chancellor’s Prestigious Green Zero Waste Campus Project and will be rolled out across four CPUT campuses in June.

The institution partnered with Twigg’s department along with Better Bellville, which aims to stimulate the area’s economic activity and develop it as a prosperous central Business District.

Better Bellville Project Manager, Zintle Dotwana, said it was a pleasure to partner with CPUT on the project.

“The goal is to take less waste to landfills. So let’s work together and make sure that this project is a success.”

Deputy Dean of Student Affairs, Njabulo Maphumulo, said CPUT was taking a stand to create sustainable and greener campuses.

“This is a call for our campus community and those surrounding us to act now and go green.”

Written by CPUT News
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