The Department of Student Affairs recently held the first-ever Student Assembly for the Central SRC to inform students about its activities.

The parliament-styled assembly took place in the City of Cape Town’s Council Chamber and saw students debating pertinent reports from the Central SRC leaders including its financial expenditure.

Malinge Gqeba, Head of the Department of Student Affairs, says the assembly was a milestone for student governance at CPUT and that it should be an annual event.

Gqeba urged student leaders to put their political differences aside and work together for the betterment of the general students’ body.

“Do you ask yourself why other students invested their votes on you?” he asked.

SRC president Mbongiseni Mbatha said the SRC’s mission is to improve student governance adding that students from high schools and Further Education and Training Colleges find it difficult to get into universities.

Student Development Officer Lindelwa Gayiza outlined the programme run by the Women in Leadership project such as personal development and leadership skills.

Gayiza challenged female delegates to define what their role in society is.

Student Development Officer Bernard Sebake addressed the delegates on the value of clean governance adding that the SRC should submit audited financial system at the end of its term.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Three SRC members have made CPUT proud by flying its flag high in conferences around the world.

SRC President Mbongiseni Mbatha and Surita Venter, an SRC member on the Wellington Campus, recently spent four days in Sydney, Australia, attending the Y20 Summit with four other youth representatives from South Africa. The Summit will make policy recommendations for the G20 Leaders’Summit in Brisbane.

The South African delegation to the Summit hopes to encourage South African leaders to read and understand the Y20 Summit’s declaration and what it is asking for. The declaration raises the Summit’s views on issues such as the youth’s role in economic and rural development.

“The main focus will be on the issues that have greater relevance and impact on the developing nations in general and Africa in particular,” reads the delegation’s report.

Meanwhile, SRC Treasurer-General Tshilande Pfuluwane attended the 28th International Youth Leadership Conference in Prague, Czech Republic.

The bi-annual conference is a forum on world politics, international relations and justice and was attended by about one hundred outstanding students from the world’s most renowned universities. It blended social interaction with cultural and educational components and Tshilande had opportunities to rub shoulders with diplomats from foreign countries.

“We were made to realize through experience the complexities of international relations,” he says. 

YOUNG LEADERS: Delegates who attended the recent 28th International Youth Leadership Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, with CPUT Central Central SRC Treasurer-General Tshilande Pfuluwani.

Tshilande participated in simulation exercises that recreated a United Nations Security Council crisis meeting, an International Criminal Court hearing, as well as a modern European Parliament session.

To be selected as delegates, students had to go through a rigorous application process.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Two CPUT students will be representing South Africa at the Y20 Summit to be held in Sydney, Australia, next week. 

The Summit will make policy recommendations for G20 leaders.

CPUT SRC President Mbongiseni Mbatha and Surita Venter, an SRC member on the Wellington Campus, will spend four days from 12 – 15 July with other four youth representatives from SA.

 Mbatha, an MTech: Entrepreneurship student and Venter, a third year B Ed student, received the good news from the South African Youth for International Diplomacy (SAYID) after going through a rigorous application process.

Before she came to CPUT, Venter was involved with the youth in Porterville. 

“I have a huge passion for the youth. During my working period I was involved with situations of severe poverty, uneducated and emotionally and physically abused youth. Although SA might seem like a country with little issues, a different world lies behind the scenes. We have a lot of youth struggling to get out of their circumstances. And I would like to raise their situations,” she says.

As part of their role, delegates are expected to engage with other delegates and run consultation workshops to enable them to represent the views of young people in their countries. They will also contribute to pre-summit discussions with delegates.

Mbatha is excited to explore the minds of youth around the world and hear what affects them.

He is passionate about the informal economy, something he is working on in his dissertation titled:  A Comparative Analysis of the success and failures of survivalist entrepreneurs.

In his research he focuses on two major townships in South Africa, Soweto and Khayelitsha. “Most African entrepreneurs are not educated; the challenge is how do you take them and groom them into the formal economy to ensure sustainable development,” he says.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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CPUT bade farewell to some of its longest-serving councillors in a gala dinner at the Cape Town Hotel School recently.

During the emotional dinner, speakers thanked the councillors for the passion with which they executed their responsibilities, even during times of disagreement.

Council chairman Mbulelo Bikwani says it is a privilege for anyone to serve in the council and that everyone served the institution with pride.

He added that all councilors were passionate about attending and engaging in robust discussions at council meetings, making important decisions that impacted on well over 30 000 students.

Registrar Nikile Ntsababa says that according to the council’s constitution, members cannot serve more than two terms (eight years) and therefore had to be released.

The longest-serving council member, Gerry Ferry, says the council gave them wonderful memories and he was commended with a standing ovation from the audience.

SRC President Mbongiseni Mbatha thanked the councils’ secretariat for dedicating long hours to keeping documents up to date and councillors abreast of developments.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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