In between autumn graduation ceremonies the Faculty of Engineering gathered its top students at the SARETEC building for the Dean’s Excellence Awards.

Parents and family members were also invited to honour the top students in each department by Prof Edward Snyders, head of the Department of Maritime Studies: “Today we celebrate academic excellence despite the myriad of challenges we faced.”

Acting Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Prof Mellet Moll, expanded as he pointed out the handful of students were symbolic of not only the engineering students but all CPUT students in that this year’s graduates had passed despite multiple years of constant disruptions because of the Fees Must Fall campaign.

Moll pointed out that the SARETEC building is the first renewable energy technology centre in the country and he expected exciting things to happen now that a series of renewable energy contracts were recently signed by independent power producers.

Moll reminded graduating students present: “Our flag is carried by you as the alumni, especially by our top achievers.”

The winners of the Dean’s Excellence Awards in the Faculty of Engineering included George Fatnev who won the Dean’s Medal. Fatnev could not make it to the Autumn Graduation as he was writing an examination, but attended the Awards ceremony to collect his medal.

He obtained distinctions in all 29 of his academic subjects with an average of 89.8 percent.

The Dean’s top student for ND and BTech combined was Sandro Cesar and the rest of the top students in the different departments are:

Reinford Mapfumo – ND Chemical Engineering;

Tshepelang  Mahlasane – BTech Chemical Engineering;

Jan-Hendrick Bothma – ND Civil Engineering;

Whidaad Nazier – BTech Civil Engineering;

Michaela Lockley – ND Clothing Management;

Larnique La Gorce – BTech Clothing Management;

Sumone Herholdt – ND Building;

Nicole Scheepers –BTech Quantity Surveying;

Willem Conradie – ND Electrical Engineering;

Ian Basson – BTech Electrical Engineering

Mogamat Junaid Samaai – ND Industrial Engineering

Tharwa Tape – BTech Quality

Vito Marco Rickerts – ND Maritime Studies

Vickus Coetzee – ND Maritime Studies

Motheo Molamo – ND Mechanical Engineering

Rowan Earp-Jones – BTech Mechanical Engineering

Written by Theresa Smith

Sive Mfanase was born in a rural village outside Mthatha in the Eastern Cape and into a life of subsistence farming, which saw him growing up as herd boy.

From the tender age of eight Sive would walk barefoot to school – a 12 kilometre round trip on dirt roads.

“During rainy seasons when the creeks rose, I would stop on the nearby bank, strip, swaddle up my books in my clothes. I would wrap this load around my head and paddled across the water floating on any handy log,” narrates Sive.

“If I arrived at school late, the teacher at my one-room school routinely whipped me.”

He recalls how tricky schooling used to be on Fridays as this was the dipping day for the village’s cattle. He would guide the cattle to the dipping tanks where he would wait in a line for a turn to send his family’s herd.

During his high school days he and a friend took weekend bus trips to nearby villages to earn money by doing odd jobs for rich families, an activity he continued until after obtaining his matric.  He took a gap year in 2013 and worked part of the year.

“It was the first time in my life that I had cash of my own, during that year I saved R7 000.”

In 2014 he enrolled at CPUT for a diploma in Tourism using his savings to pay for half of the first semester’s tuition fees.

He began classes with no money and little prospect of earning the other half by midterm.

“Another student told me that even though I did not have money, the university would not exclude me if I earned good grades. I did and soon I was awarded a bursary to continue my studies.”

After obtaining his diploma in 2016 he later changed fields of study to satisfy his business interests.

During Autumn Graduation, Sive graduated with a BTech in Business Administration.

He is currently enrolled towards an MTech in Business Administration and aspires to start his own business.

The hard work and dedication of five MTech graduates in the Faculty of Informatics and Design were celebrated during a special robing ceremony.

The graduates and their supervisors reflected on the journey they had shared on their way to graduation before family members and other loved ones were given the opportunity to ceremoniously “robe” the graduates.

Supervisor Dr Pineteh Angu said graduate Katebesha Mbanza had encountered several challenges while seeking asylum in South Africa.

“And through those challenges he decided he had to contribute to addressing those challenges.

Being a non-English speaker and trying to seek asylum in South Africa you have this problem called language. You have to tell painful stories in a language you’re not very comfortable with,” Angu said

Mbanza eventually became an interpreter to help other asylum seekers and through this process his research emerged.

His thesis is titled: The use of interpretation services to address the communication challenges faced by Congolese Asylum seekers at the Refugee Reception Office in Cape Town.

“Let me take this opportunity to encourage fellow students: If a refugee, an interpreter, a married man, a stable employee and English fourth language speaker can achieve this, then why not other students,” said Mbanza.

Graduate Osadi Mosweu said her journey had not been an easy one.

“The first time I presented my proposal it was shut down. I was shattered but picked myself up and started over again. The following year it was approved and I was so excited.”

Her thesis was titled: An assessment of the capacity management process of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library framework in delivering value in the public sector.