Author Archives: Guest writer

About Guest writer

Guest writers are CPUT staff members who contribute to our site.

Rewarding long service

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Thousands of years of institutional memory was celebrated during the recent Long Service Awards Ceremony.

Vice-Chancellor Dr Chris Nhlapo said the Awards ceremony was a way to say thank you to people who displayed loyalty towards the institution and that he was acutely aware of how hard staff worked during the 2017 crises.

“Any opportunity to celebrate the resilience of staff and students is welcome. This function is about the people that make sure this institution is moving forward. It is about relationships and building brand security,” he said.

He pointed out that while students and staff came and went, the only true sense of stability is the strong core that defines CPUT.

“Discipline is the greatest thing in the world. Without discipline there is no character. Without character there is no institution,” he said.

This year 186 people received Long Service Awards: 78 for ten years; 26 for 20 years; 45 for 20 years; 11 for 25 years; 18 for 30 years; 6 for 35 years; and two for 40 years of service.

“The days of people investing 40 years in an institution is rare and we really appreciate that. To Jenny Penfold and Jacobus Raubenheimer, and the rest of you, you have known a very different institution to what you see today. But, you will agree that one thing that has never changed is the culture of care for each other. I hope you assist us in reclaiming the institution so that we become a university of technology that is an institution that focuses on people,” he concluded.

Written by Theresa Smith

A utopian view on a better agricultural model

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The land debate promises to be a hot election ticket as the nation prepares to head to the polls in 2019. As the propaganda and hysteria mounts around this emotive topic I propose that we consider a more utopian approach to land reform. It all hinges on the question; “How can the country’s agricultural land be placed not into the ownership of a few – but to the service of many?”

To put this into perspective let’s consider the advent of music streaming services.

Back in the day my father’s LP collection, of no more than a 100 songs, was one of his proudest items.  As a member of generation X, I realized quickly that copying songs on a cassette gave me immediate access to the entire song collection of my friends. That feels like a million years ago. Today, I use a streaming service that provides me with more songs than I can listen to, but none of them I own.

Ownership brings hardship with it. Think about a car. It costs a lot of money to buy and maintain, while most of the time it doesn’t add much value. The future of personal transport will be self-driving cars that are based on a subscription service. The future brings the promise of owning fewer things but with the benefit of many more.

This brings my argument back to contemporary agriculture. Let’s acknowledge that the poorer people are the more money they spend on food, and the more likely they are to be part of the informal economy. If I believe the rhetoric of SA politics, we should focus our efforts on this specific and unfortunately still large social group.

I propose that we start the discussion on land reform with a most desirable outcome: which is to provide the country with cheap, maybe free, food- delivered to doorsteps.

Communities, in their different forms, could arrange crops based on what they want, staple (grain, vegetables, etc), and which quantity. Comparative data about how much food one needs for a comfortable diet is available in order to avoid unreasonable demands.

These demands should be quite stable over time and vary mainly with cultural differences. Agricultural producers would compete to fulfil this wish list of food. Why? Because the agreement that they will feed these people will grant them access to land. Those producers that show that they will feed the most people come first to choose from the available land. Priority is always given to the producer who can feed the most people with the land or use the fewest hectares to feed the same amount of people. This would ensure competition and would reward those who produce most efficiently – also the right use of technology. Who are the producers? Farmers, cooperatives of farm workers, international organizations, … whoever wants to use the land to feed the people. To ensure that producers also have a financial incentive, the producer will get access to additional land (as a percentage of the land to provide food) on which they will have the right to farm cash-crops or more value-added produce like citrus etc. The land would be given free of charge.

The producers must show not only that they can feed people, but also that they can arrange transport and distribution. Needless to say, that such a door to door delivery will provide employment to community members. Not only would the benefit be cheaper and better food supply, but also would opportunities arise along the distribution chain.

No, what I propose is not socialism! There is no state deciding for the people what they want, and the state is not awarding the contracts to a preferred producer as we see it now with service delivery.

Arbitrary courts would settle disputes between the communities and the producers, and award compensation if the promised food delivery was not fulfilled. A reckless overpromising can be avoided through comparing the suggested food production with the achieved productivity of the past years.

Times of technological developments and economic uncertainty have never been good times for social utopias. Still, when we speak about restructuring the agriculture of the country, we should use this opportunity to think about solutions for food provisions that are radically different to our current systems. After all what do we have to loose.

Dr Thomas Thurner

CPUT Research Chair: Innovation in Society

Working with a smile

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Back when Florina Wagenaar started working at then Pentech in 1976, it was in the kitchen of a hostel that accommodated 200 students.

“I had to stand on a bench just to reach the pots,” she laughs.

She quickly moved to working on the floor, which meant cleaning the communal spaces of the hostel, making sure students were fed and in their own rooms at night.

“We would have to wait for the students to come back from away games or whatever they were doing. We loved working with the students, looking after them. We were close to them.

“We used to be very strict, the house matron did not laugh. It was good times,” said Wagenaar.

WORKPLACE: Florina Wagenaar in front of the Mechanical Engineering Building.

As her own family grew during the 80s (she has four children) Wagenaar continued working in the hostel until the early 90s when she moved first to the old Education Building and then the Mechanical Engineering Building where she still works today.

She is the woman with all the keys and as she bustles around everyone greets her with a happy “hello aunty Florine” before they lay their building problems at her feet. They tell her about a broken machine or depleted stores and she knows exactly who to notify to sort it out.

She recently attended the CPUT Long Service Awards at Granger Bay Campus, beaming as she walked up to collect a certificate for 35 years of unbroken service.

Now 62 years old, Wagenaar started working on Pentech Campus because that was the job the then Department of Coloured Affairs assigned to her. While there were many better paying jobs available in local factories she preferred the educational institution.

“I did like the work, especially the holidays. That was the best part,” said Wagenaar who would visit her mother back home in Oudtshoorn every chance she would get.

She likes the fact that service workers on campus are once again directly employed by CPUT as she has once again noticed a warm sense of camaraderie amongst the workers which she remembers from when she first started.

Written by Theresa Smith

 

 

Culturing enquiring minds

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Horticulture BTech students got a taste of academic rigour when they recently presented their research on Plant Tissue Culture to lecturers and fellow students.

Not only did they have to defend their presentation choices but also demonstrate whether they could draw on lessons learned in various classes to support particular statements.

Plant Tissue Culture (PTC) is a collection of techniques used to grow plants in a laboratory under controlled conditions on a nutrient medium.

Biotechnology lecturer Dr Lalini Reddy says PTC forms a capstone for the subject and this year she wanted her students to expand beyond a factual assignment to grapple with philosophical questions.

She also encouraged her 9 BTech students to write a letter to the presidency to try to start a conversation encouraging the South African government to take PTC more seriously as a niche industry. They had to concentrate on the conservation of biodiversity and its potential effects on the country’s GDP and employment rates.

“It’s just a start for them,” Reddy told the lecturers and students who had gathered to listen to the presentations.

STERILE ENVIRONMENT: Plants cultivated in a CPUT laboratory in a nutrient medium.

The students recently visited plant tissue culture laboratory Frontier Labs in Brackenfell, which Horticulture BTech student Amanda Mahlungulu described as useful for giving them an idea of what the PTC industry is about.

“Normally when you grow plants, we know the conventional methods. He showed us how you can use technology and that something can come of it,” said Mahlungulu.

Fellow student Ngawethu Ngaka said they have found the industry visits very useful when they have to apply to do their in service training: “It makes it easier because you understand how the different organisations work.”

While Mahlungulu is interested in the concept, she knows that PTC is not yet so popular in South Africa that it would be easy to find a job in the field.

Reddy says the opportunities do exist: “It is up to the students to make themselves known.”

She says assigning the students to write the letter to the presidency and do a presentation to their fellow students and the CPUT community about their findings is one way to do just that.

Written by Theresa Smith

Taking the long view

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Over the past 40 years of working for CPUT Raubie Raubenheimer has taught 5300 students in five different buildings across three campuses.

“They’re all somewhere around here, it’s a small profession,” Raubenheimer reflects on his students as he points out half of the staff working at National Geo-spatial Information (NGI), South Africa’s national mapping organisation, greet him as their own lecturer when he enters the building in Mowbray.

When he started lecturing in September 1977 it was for the Cape College for Advanced Technical Education as it became renamed the Cape Technikon. While he has continued lecturing surveying as a subject ever since, one subject he taught back then which doesn’t exist now is how to interpret aerial photographs.

One of the biggest changes he has seen over the years has been the exponential growth of technology. It isn’t just how computers and the advent of GPS changed his field of study, but how it has changed the structure of the courses. He has seen how the field of teaching surveying merged so that all institutions offering the course eventually worked from the same curriculum and nowadays institutions are starting to diverge and specialise again.

“I enjoyed working with the students,” he smiles broadly as he answers the question of why he stayed at CPUT for four decades.

Though the kind of students who study Geographical Information Sciences have changed over the years (“nowadays kids don’t know how to draw maps”) he thinks lecturers have to change how they approach teaching.

“For me, enthusiasm for your subject is the most important thing,” he said.

Raubenheimer recently picked up a certificate for 40 years of service at the Long Service Awards and plans to retire at the end of the year.

He has always kept up his Geomatics Council membership and plans to become even more involved in the organisation’s Continuous Professional Development committee, which he helped to start in 2013.

The continued membership isn’t just to keep him out of his wife’s hair, Raubenheimer likes the fact that surveying not only gets you outside, but it has afforded him the opportunity to travel, present papers at conferences and render a service to the profession and community.

“I presented a paper in Helsinki, Finland in 1998 on our in-service training and how we monitor it. They had all the flags up outside of the conference centre, it was a relatively small conference but of the about 300 people attending I was the only one from Africa,” he remembered.

Written by Theresa Smith

Service workers brought into the fold

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CPUT took advantage of the recent recess to complete a programme of induction for service colleagues.

927 Protection services, cleaning and gardening employees from all the campuses took part in workshops over four days to learn more about what it means to be a permanent staff member at the institution and how we all contribute to the success of CPUT.

“Today is a start of engaging you to build and enhance your contributions in building CPUT,” Shahieda Hendricks, Manager: Staff Development and Training told inductees as she welcomed them to the Sports Hall on the Bellville Campus.

Welcoming the service employees as colleagues Prof Anthony Staak, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, gave them context to the history of the institution and an introduction to the university’s vision-Vision 2020. He also emphasised our CPUT workplace values of integrity and accountability.

“We see ourselves making a contribution to the Western Cape, the nation and the continent so we actively seek partnerships throughout Africa to do that. It is a noble vision and all of us have a role to play.

“You have a critical role to play in ensuring that our environment is conducive to this work, that it is safe, secure and clean. For most of the students, and certainly the staff, this is our home away from home.

“We need to all be pushing in the same direction and we need to support each other because we are all part of one family at CPUT,” said Staak.

The workshops were about explaining the benefits and responsibilities of working at CPUT and while coordinators at the tables did their best to answer questions, further training sessions will be arranged on the various campuses once a training needs analysis has been completed.

Employment Relations Officer Colin Bezuidenhout of the Learning & Development Department (which is part of Human Capital) was on hand to talk about training possibilities and further study opportunities. He pointed out that CPUT has already started talking to SASSETA (Safety and Security Sector Education Training Authority) and the Services Seta to organise funding for learnerships.

Newly appointed Director of Campus Protection Services Gavin Solomons was also on hand to ask security staff how they wanted to be recognised by the rest of the campus and what they considered to be the benchmarks of their work. “You say you want to be the best. What must we put in place to get that right,” Solomons asked the staff who were energised by challenge.

Amanda Glaeser, Acting Head of Human Capital pointed out that the four unions also presented their philosophies to ensure staff members understood the various options available.

“We were happy to provide the session in three languages and the diversity competence of our campus was demonstrated as a rich and valuable way to work,” said Glaeser.

Written by Theresa Smith

INTRODUCTION: The induction workshop for service workers was an interactive affair.

Balancing act

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While still a teenager, Tsatsi Ngcingwana discovered a feel for accounting whilst working on holiday jobs.

“It just made logical sense … it’s a balancing act and I did not find it difficult to understand,” he remembers. He graduated with a ND Accounting from the Durban University of Technology in 1998.

During mid-July this year he took on the job of Director: Finance Operations at CPUT having garnered a wealth of experience in both public and private sectors over 19 years.

While he does have a head for figures, Ngcingwana quickly discovered in his first role at SARS as a Tax Auditor that his people skills were even more important.

“It was an intimidating role because some people didn’t understand the value of paying tax. They’d literally come out guns blazing and dogs barking because you are taking away from them what they have rightfully earned (like taking food from their mouths).

“But when you explained how the tax system operates, people tended to listen. If you were aggressive, people reciprocated with the same response, the key was to be humble and engaging to meet targets” said Ngcingwana.

“You approach your career thinking you want to achieve a certain level of self-fulfilment but little do you know, even if you are not a people’s person, you will end up having to deal with people on a daily basis.”

From SARS he moved on to national and international and medium sized corporates, alternating between the private and public sector, eventually settling at UCT in 2008.

He worked there as Finance Manager for nine years and at the same time furthered his own education. Ngcingwana holds masters’ degrees in Financial Management (M.Com) and Executive Management (MBA), B.Com honours and is currently completing the CIMA accredited Chartered Management Accountant qualification.

Ngcingwana thinks that as Director: Finance Operations at CPUT he will be much more involved with dealing directly with student matters, DHET and NSFAS than accustomed too, prior to this role.

First thought he is assessing processes and procedures and familiarising himself with our policies, regulations and guidelines. Already he is applying his mind to how some policies, such as the one on Student Debt, require updating.

Written by Theresa Smith

Minding your food

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A group of Consumer Science students recently shared their extensive food knowledge with a group of vulnerable youth from Philippi.

The CPUT students visited the Baphumelele: Fountain of Hope youth residential home for those who have left orphanages and foster homes but have nowhere to go.

The 36 second year students used their first visit to explain the South African Food Based Dietary Guidelines and their second visit to demonstrate an easy meal based on the availability of food items at the organisation.

14 youth stay at Baphumelele: Fountain of Hope, which can house up to 20, and is in the process of expanding. They go through a year-long Independent Living Programme meant to impart life skills such as how to manage a budget, clean their personal spaces and how to make their own food.

With that in mind the Consumer Science Students explained the importance of nutrition by talking about the different kinds of foodstuff that is healthy to eat, demonstrated exercises and offered examples of the food they were discussing.

The youth really warmed to the students at the second visit when they demonstrated recipes and allowed the youngsters to sample the cooked dishes. They then had tea together for an opportunity to get to know one another better.

The CPUT students also used money they raised from staff and fellow students to put together toiletry and food hampers for the residents.

Consumer Science lecturer Theloshni Govender said the Department of Biotechnology and Consumer Science has been working on their relationships with Baphumelele: Fountain of Hope since 2017.

“The organisation is a perfect opportunity for students to engage and positively influence the youth in this community. The organisation plants their own vegetable and I saw this platform as an ideal project for the students to apply their nutrition knowledge,” said Govender.

She pointed out the CPUT students developed and enhanced their communication, collaboration and leadership skills and the visit gave them a chance to learn more about a field that might interest them.

“It also gives them a better understanding of their academics. They are able to apply the knowledge they have learned and they are able to remember it,” said Govender.

Written by Theresa Smith

Security in Service

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Newly appointed Director of Risk and Protection Services Gavin Solomons has quickly become a familiar sight around CPUT Campuses.

Solomons has visited all the CPUT campuses but is basing himself in Bellville for the moment to do his own long term assessment of needs and shortcoming, working alongside campus protection officers as they control access to that campus.

Though he started during recess, Solomons was thrown in on the deep end when he had to make a presentation to protection services employees in only his first week.

He used it as an opportunity to ask them how they want to be perceived and what their own goals were for campus protection services.

He sees this as his starting point as he reviews standard operating procedures dealing with everything from campus evacuation plans to guidelines for bringing more women into the campus protection services’ management structures.

“The whole idea is to make a better CPUT,” said Solomons.

His first job was as a security guard so he has insight into what it takes to guard a building in the dark or be the one running towards the loud bang.

Solomons took up this particular CPUT job because he relishes the challenge of changing how people view the institution, seeing it as so much more than just making sure campus protection officers are posted at optimal vantage points.

“It is to minimise risk and liability against the university. It’s not just guarding the property and buildings, but the brand. That is what risk assessment is and if we work here we are all brand ambassadors of CPUT,” said Solomons.

He comes to CPUT from Cape Town City’s Traffic Services where he managed traffic enforcement and flow management. He had originally started in law enforcement in 1990.

Solomons experienced the #FeesMustFall protests first hand as a student since he completed his Masters degree in public management at CPUT in 2017.

He graduated with a thesis entitled ‘Measuring the Performance of the Integrated Development Plan in a selected Metropolitan council in the Western Cape, South Africa’ and has already started planning his PhD studies working out a universal code of conduct for public servants.

Now that he is working at CPUT though Solomons is considering using what he learns on the job as possible research material, maybe even working out a model for campus protection services that would serve as a blueprint for other South African universities.

Written by Theresa Smith

Space science launches CPUT into Africa

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Representatives of the Pan African University recently visited CPUT to check out the newest addition to the PAU.

A post-graduate training and research network of university nodes in five regions, supported by the African Union, the PAU was officially launched in 2011. It aims to provide opportunities for advanced graduate training and postgraduate research to high-performing African students.

Prof Tsige Gebre-Mariam, of the School of Pharmacy at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, and PAU programme assistant Heromen Asefa Fetale visited CPUT on a fact-finding mission. They were investigating our research policies, graduate programmes and procedures around publications as we become the southern African university institute of the PAU.

The universities which house institutions centred on different science research focus areas are deliberately spread across north, west, east, central and southern Africa and each is selected on the basis of excellence displayed in a particular science programme. CPUT’s Space Programme was what won us the opportunity to be the coordinator of the PAU Space Sciences Programme.

The other institutes which make up the PAU are:

  • PAU Institute for Water and Energy Sciences (including Climate Change) situated at the Abou Bekr Bekaid University of Tlemcen, Algeria.
  • PAU Institute for Life and Earth Sciences (including Health and Agriculture) at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
  • PAU Institute for Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon.
  • PAU Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi, Kenya.

Gebre-Mariam is drawing on his experience working on research policies when he helped to found the Academy of Sciences (a Pan African organisation headquartered in Kenya which aims to drive sustainable development in Africa through science, technology and innovation).

“The idea is to have a centre of excellence in each geographic location, for the knowledge it diffuses inwards,” explained Gebre-Mariam.

The various institutes are aimed at post graduate students.

“At any given time 70% of the students studying in the programme should come from countries other than the host country. Staff as well,” said Gebre-Mariam.

Written by Theresa Smith