“Women are the glue that holds families, community and a nation together.” Those were the sentiments of one of the speakers at the Provincial Parliament launch event for 16 days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children. The annual campaign takes place from 25 November to 10 December and is marked globally to raise awareness about the violence perpetrated on women and children in our society. NGOs and leaders from community development organisations across the Peninsula were invited and participated.

Organised to the last detail by CPUT’s Events Management Short Course students from the Centre for Graduate Management, last week’s launch formed part of the students’ integrated summative assessment and their contribution to community engagement.

According to Beryl Liebetrau, an Events Management lecturer, the students’ involvement ran to not just staging the event, but included administration, invitations, the programme, selection of participants and speakers, finance, décor, refreshments, registration and protocol - every area of event organisation and management. “The students also needed to look at other facets of activism. Safety, risk, legislative compliance and broad-based community involvement were some of the added elements the student’s had to consider to meet the client’s objectives,” says Liebetrau.

The students were assessed on, amongst other things, their professionalism, ability to communicate, their attitude, appearance and training of volunteers, the registration process, directional signage at the event, safety, catering, the programme and choice of speakers.

Laetitia Meter, one of the students, says, “Even though we had some hiccups at the beginning, we managed to handle them. Today’s experience has taught me more about Events Management and because we organised the event for Parliament, it also taught us how to do things according to the legislation and ground rules.”

President Jacob Zuma launches this year’s 16 days of Activism campaignnationwide, delivering a keynote address at the opening ceremony in Khayelitsha. Concerns this year include the rise of figures involving the dumping of babies – in the Cape Metro area alone, over 500 babies are abandoned a year. On a provincial level, Premier Helen Zille, and MEC of Social Development Patricia De Lille are focusing on holding maintenance defaulters responsible and ensuring that beneficiaries receive the money due to them.

The campaign calls for supporters to wear a white ribbon during the 16-day period as a symbol of peace – and a symbol of the commitment of the wearer to never commit or condone violence against women and children.

By Andiswa Dantile

Written by CPUT News
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Africa’s grandest event had an exceptional 16^th birthday celebration, thanks to CPUT staff and students.

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival happened over the weekend and attracted international music lovers and artists and even the South African president Jacob Zuma.

Apart from the two day festival, the event has grown over the years to include workshops, master classes, a photo exhibition and even a fashion show. And as it has flourished, so has CPUT’s involvement.

This year Public Relations lecturer Ayesha Toyer was seconded to work with the festival organisers espAFRIKA and along with fellow PR lecturer Rifqah Abrahams they managed 24 students from the Public Relations, Public Management and Events Management courses who volunteered their time.

The students had a substantial role to play in the festival workings, dealing extensively with the media at press conferences, working in the media pits at the various stages and managing the media lounge throughout the weekend.

First year PR student Juanita Plaatjies became one of the more popular students thanks to the scheduling announcements she made in the media lounge every 15 minutes.

“I was really intimidated in the beginning but then I got the hang of it and all the journalists were really nice. Afterwards they would come to me with all sorts of queries,” she says.

Second year student Natana Coluna was a guide to a visiting royal family and even got to meet Zuma because of her important duty. Natana says memorising all the artist rules was overwhelming but she soon realised the importance of knowing the guidelines well.

“Once the event started you understood why certain things had to be the way they were. It was really nice to see how your small part could make a really big difference to this huge event,” she says.

Head of the Media Department at CPUT Prof Nirvana Bechan says the festival offered the students a well rounded experience.

"The festival was a great opportunity for our students to get exposure and experience working on an international platform under the supervision of their lecturers," she says.

Written by Lauren Kansley

Tel: +27 21 953 8646
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Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.