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Wednesday, 21 April 2010

CPUT launches and implements Transformation Charter

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CPUT recently launched its Transformation Charter, making it one of the few institutions of higher learning that have reached that stage in the transformation agenda.

The launch was very symbolic in that it took place two days after Human Rights Day, 21 March, 50 years after the commemoration of Sharpeville Day (Human Rights Day), and 25 years after the Langa Massacre.

The launch is also significant as CPUT will host the Department of Higher Education and Training’s first ever national stakeholder summit on higher education transformation from 22 to 23 April 2010.

George Mvalo, Manager for Institutional Transformation, Social Cohesion and Diversity at CPUT, said the higher education landscape in our country is such that universities need to respond in a coherent manner to the various transformation imperatives that are facing us.

He said the new document will bind us all and that it addresses seven principles of transformation. The process has so far involved two stages, with the first stage concentrating on the distribution of the charter itself on the cover of the current year’s desktop calendars. This was then followed by the launch.

Mvalo said the next step was to embed the charter in all processes. “We need to incorporate it amongst other things within our employment equity transformation processes and the transformation strategy. It should also be part of our strategic planning and we need to ensure that it cascades down to all levels within our university. We need to keep the charter alive and also see how can we carve out a student charter and enhance students’ lives,” he said.

Dr Sabie Surtee, the guest speaker for the day, painted a bleak picture of employment equity in the workplace according to the findings of a research she undertook at selected Western Cape organisations.

Her presentation, entitled “Transformation: African People in the Western Cape,” reached the following findings: “There was a low level of appointments of Africans in middle and junior management level posts. This was accompanied by robust appointment rates of white people in this occupational level which in most cases was double if not more than their numerical representivity in the South African population as a whole”.

It was recommended among other things that “The participating companies should build inter-company collaborative networks. This would allow them to identify and develop good practice to improve EE progress. Wider stakeholder engagement is needed to deal constructively with the social factors that make the Western Cape an unattractive destination for African professionals.

Participating companies need to review the format they are currently using to conduct staff meetings to address the “invisible syndrome”. A new methodology needs to be implemented where the voices of all staff are recognised, heard and respected”.

“Business was concerned about the difficulty that its members in the Western Cape were having in attracting and retaining African professionals on certain levels. Independent research was hence needed to understand what are the barriers to the achievement of employment equity in relation to African people in the Western Cape,” she said.

By Thami Nkwanyane

Photograph: Manager for Institutional Transformation, Social Cohesion and Diversity George Mvalo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Technology Innovation and Partnerships Dr Chris Nhlapo and Executive Advisor to the Vice Chancellor’s Office Dr Nomathamsanqa Tisani present the CPUT Transformation Charter.

Click here to view a copy of the presentation delivered at the launch of the Transformation Charter.

Written by CPUT News

Email: news@cput.ac.za