For the first time ever at CPUT, the majority of students elected to the Student Representative Councils (SRC) are women.

This year has seen the male-female ratio of the SRCs on CPUT’s various campuses rise to 22:50 from 53:20 in 2019. The last two years have seen a steady growth of women who get elected into leadership. In 2018 the ratio was 8:22.

For the first time ever, this year the Central SRC President is a woman and her name is Phinda Swaartbooi.  

Just like their mother organisations in parliament, the students’ political structures at CPUT have made a commitment to ensure that women feature prominently in leadership positions.

Advocate Lionel Harper, Head of the Department of Student Governance and Leadership (DSGL), says this move by the student structures serves to ensure that social issues that affect women students such as gender-based violence are advanced and that women get into programmes that were usually dominated by males.

“Moreover, Student Affairs management and [the CPUT] Council have strongly supported more female participation on all student structures and committees, and the staff in DSGL take gender equity matters very seriously,” adds Harper.

He says the collective efforts by the University’s stakeholders are yielding positive results in respect of more female students aspiring to occupy leadership roles at CPUT.

The Department of Student Affairs has further implemented a special mentoring programme for the female student leaders beginning with academic mentoring and later focused on specific leadership and general broad-based transformation coaching by three highly competent CPUT staff members. 

“This mentoring is also being extended to the male student leaders so that all student leaders receive high level mentoring/ coaching in addition to the induction and training that DSGL provides for all the 53 SRC members and the Faculty Representatives,” says Harper.

He adds that the Department also anticipates higher numbers of female students becoming Faculty representatives in the future.

For the individual profiles of the women elected to the Local SRCs please see the university’s official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/cput.ac.za

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Students will be able to show off their creative skills by designing and creating garments for an online fashion show.

The national lockdown has prompted The Department of Student Affairs (Student Development and Student Housing) to launch the Green Campus Initiative (GCI) Online Fashion Show. Together with the GCI Green Ambassadors (student volunteers), the department is calling on students to participate as designers. The designers are required to design (and create) one garment, and a mask in an effort to raise awareness of Covid-19.  T

An adjudicators panel is scheduled to announce the winners on 17 June.

Student Development Officer, Melani-Ann Hara said the aim of the event was to provide the students with: “A unique and memorable experience which creates environmental awareness, by combining entertainment, fashion and environmental awareness”.

Hara said it’s an opportunity to provide a platform for all registered students across all faculties interested in design to showcase their skill and passion by entering and designing garments made out of recyclable and upcycled materials. “[We] promote the Green Campus Initiative and [want] to get more students involved with the activities and to become more environmentally conscious.”

The department aims to reach between more than 500 students through the various online platforms. GCI 2020 chairperson, Sisipho Mphemba said a designer can model his or her design or may choose any person who is older than 18 years at home to model the design.

“The person [model] may or may not be the registered student of CPUT as long as you are within lockdown restrictions.”

The designers’ applications are open until 24 May 2020.  The deadline for submission of designers’ garment photos and videos is 5 June 2020.

The designers’ products will be uploaded on Student Affairs’ Facebook page for voting from 8 June to 24 June at midnight. The top three winners which will be announced on 17 June will be awarded prizes as follows:

• First place: R 2 500
• Second place: R 1 500
• Third place: R 1 000

Please use the following link to apply: https://forms.gle/vLXe74fv4aX33ZZb9   

For more information contact: Melani-Ann Hara: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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The Department of Student Affairs (DSA) has compiled a list of exciting activities to keep students fit, healthy, and entertained during the lockdown.

Deputy Dean of Students, Tulani Nkuntse outlined the wellness services available to students during this period and how to access them.

Nkuntse said: This is aimed at reaching as many of our students as possible. Some of the activities can be done individually, in pairs and or groups and therefore students can even do some with their own families, [for]those who are at home.”

These activities range from aerobics to general fitness which are done every day with a walk or run activity in and around your home. The intensity of the activity can be increased with time and can include stairs, chairs, sandbags, water bottles.

Individuals are also urged to set up their own exercise circuit at home which could include basic exercises such as sit-ups, push-ups, planking, and squats. “Students can check out Virgin Active Facebook page for an exercise activity every morning at 07:30. Video call a friend or colleague while doing the activities simultaneously,” he said.

Nkuntse encouraged students to watch Virgin Active, “The Grid 20 Minute Hit Workout and Active Fitness Activities for Members” on YouTube. He said that there was also a Supa-pool, a programme which includes, ‘YouTube – 8 Ball Pool Practice Routines and Improve Your Game in 10 Minutes with basic pool practice drills’. The students are also encouraged to watch Volleyball YouTube – 10 solo volleyball drills to try at home; Golf YouTube – Golf swing made simple (miracle drill) and Chess Online Video Coaching.

“We always have our students in mind… we were talking about how much we miss them, we thought of compiling something to show them that they are in our thoughts and that they could still do activities that will remind them that they belong to [the] CPUT community.”

To add to the sport, DSA also included arts and cultural activities such as the virtual choir project, weekly drama practice videos, which will be created and shared with all drama students and interactive debates will be scheduled via social media. The short story project is aimed for students who are creative with words, have a passion for storytelling, and who can work in a collaborative format.  This project will be rolled out in phases.

Facilities committee member, Cherice Mangiagalli said once students have been identified, online platforms will be used to brainstorm ideas. These ideas will be finalised into different genres, themes, and titles of the short stories.  Students will work in groups of three to five per story depending on the interest shown and which language they are most comfortable with from IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Afrikaans, and English.  Mangiagalli adds that once the short stories have been completed: “Our hope is to engage our schools in the surrounding communities by sharing the love for reading and writing.”

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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The Department of Student Affairs has initiated a food parcel drive to support vulnerable CPUT students during the lockdown.

Deputy Dean of Students, Tulani Nkuntse said they have been working with the Central Student Representative Council in partnership with an NGO, Ithemba Labantu, and staff members to assist 420 identified students who are currently in residences and in need of food and basic essentials. “We have rolled out assistance for the students who have not received their allowances to [this] date, [and] students who are not receiving any form of bursary or NSFAS…and we were clear that this is for students who have no means to support themselves.” 

This initiative has been benefiting mainly the students on the Bellville Campus. Nkuntse said postgraduate students in Cape Town also started a fund to assist students residing in their residences who were identified as needing similar support. “This has also fast-tracked the university’s wider student support programme geared to support our struggling students; the groundwork has begun,” said Nkuntse.

He added that the university has already spent about R200 000 and that the initiative came at a time when the institution had begun looking at various ways on how to build a sustainable programme to support its struggling students. “We believe that this initiative will provide a good foundation for the programme to be implemented in the near future.”

This initiative also received a thumbs up from Vice-Chancellor Prof Chris Nhlapo, who said: “This is excellent beyond measure. This is what social justice and a caring university must do. Well done.” 

Nkuntse added that the university has a number of struggling students and support of this kind was crucial for ‘our’ university. “We are committed to ensuring that we support our students in all ways possible. Good nutrition results in good health and ultimately good academic performance.”

*The Dr Mzamo Jakavula Foundation and Adams Food Stall have also been assisting with cooked meals.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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The Department of Student Affairs has gone the extra mile to assist students since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deputy Dean of Students, Tulani Nkuntse, said that from 1 March to 18 April, the university has initiated a number of programmes, including Health Cluster activities, busing students home ahead of lockdown, accommodating students who could not go home, student counselling and general residence activities. When President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that SA would go into lockdown, it was decided that it would be in (residence) students’ best interests if they returned to their families for the duration of the lockdown period.

Nkuntse said 941 students were transported by CPUT chartered buses and 9 719 went home voluntarily. A total of 1853 students chose to remain on campus.

“There is good provision of services to ensure the hygiene of residences [such as] procuring and securing protective equipment, sanitisers and gloves, good containment with no positive cases reported thus far.”

The Student Health Clinic works in tandem with the Western Cape Department of Health and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Cape Town as they follow the World Health Organisation, National Department of Health and NICD Protocols in the management of suspected and confirmed Coronavirus cases. “All suspected, confirmed cases and close contacts at CPUT campuses can be reported telephonically to the student health clinic with the following detail:

• Name and surname of suspected case/patient
• Contact number and alternative number
• Date of start of symptoms

The deputy dean added that anti-microbial (antibiotics) treatment is not advised for COVID-19 cases unless there is good reason to do so e.g. secondary bacterial infections.   He said the university has increased access to staff members for students in all activities and that students can send emails to request counselling. Student counsellors can call to follow up.

Nkuntse said students have been adhering to lockdown rules as required and there has been greater access control at campus gates.

“This period has challenged us to look deeply and we fast-tracked the thinking around the services we provide as student affairs and how we need to reimagine student affairs for the university of the future. We have acted in the best way possible. We continue to look for ways to improve during this uncertain time but in all we do; we have our students at the centre of it all. [We are] quite happy with the progress made thus far. We were able to really, in a short space of time [we] come up with and implemented concrete plans to ensure that we respond in a responsible manner. We continue to make more strides to ensure that our interventions yield the desired results,” Nkuntse said.

Emergency contact person is Andries Slinger; *60247 or 076 229 0298

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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The Department of Student Affairs (DSA) hosted its first dialogue of a series of Restaurant Talks which allowed students and staff to engage around critical topics and issues on the Bellville Campus.

The DSA Restaurant Talk covered CPUT’s Vision, Mission, and Values. Dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Design, Prof Johannes Cronje, facilitated the relaxed and interactive talk which afforded maximum participation to about 100 students including Central SRC president, Sikhulule Mpetsheni.

The format was small group discussions around the table where students were encouraged to share their ideas back to the plenary. Cronje summarised and shared the points made by the groups with the rest of the audience. 

The audience included a mixture of SRC members, representatives of student structures, and general students. DSA Manager, Advocate Lionel Harper, said they will continue with the series of Restaurant Talks as they plan to hold the next session next month on the District Six Campus.

“It’s important for everyone to know what the values that we subscribe to as the institution are, student discipline is part of student affairs so it’s important for students to obey the values of the institution,” said Harper. “That’s why this afternoon we have to understand what our values and rules are; you won’t leave these premises hungry in terms of information.”

He added that it was important to work closely with the SRC and leaders of the various student structures. “We as staff need to know and live these values so that we can be able to remind the students that they need to understand and live CPUT values.

Mpetsheni said the Talk was “very informative with absolutely profound content”. “As a university, we should continue having programmes of this nature to allow student centered-ness,” he said.

Athlone Local SRC Communication Officer, Nosimphiwe Mbedla, said the information was educational and interesting. “It also taught us about the difference between the vision and the mission of the University.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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