Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying and Centre for Water and Sanitation Researcher, Dr Bongani Ncube, is beaming with confidence after she played a leading role in the successful launch of a website that will support ‘smallholder’ farmers with water resource management.

The website was developed from a research project which is titled, Approaches for Emerging Farmer Participation in Water Resource Management: The Case of the Breede-Gouritz Catchment Management Agency (BGCMA), Western Cape. As a project leader, Ncube collaborated with BGCMA and the University of the Western Cape to develop and implement joint research and capacity building programmes based on the BGCMA research and training needs for emerging farmers. The launch was held in Worcester recently.

The main objectives were to assess the progress in accessing water by small-scale and emerging farmers, challenges faced by the farmers in participating in water resource management and to explore the opportunities for engaging the farmers in water allocation processes.

According to Ncube, the Water Research Commission funded the project and translation of the package from English into Afrikaans and IsiXhosa. The website is freely accessible and it can also be accessed via mobile phones. The package is also downloadable in the three languages. “For the farmers who do not have smartphones the package has been printed into hard copies for free distribution via the participating institutions,” she said.

Other participating institutions include the Department of Water and Sanitation, Berg-Olifants Proto CMA, Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and African Farmers Association of South Africa. Meanwhile, CPUT played the coordinator and facilitator roles.

BGCMA Chief Executive Officer, Jan van Staden, said the website will play a huge role in assisting the emerging farmers to access the agricultural information which was not easy to find before. “The website will enable the emerging farmers especially from the previously disadvantaged communities to know where to go for support. With a click in a button they will know who to contact or where to go for any particular information.”

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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As we celebrate Heritage Month, Dr Bongani Ncube, a researcher at the Centre for Water and Sanitation Research, under the Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying devotes her time to working with communities to conserve our natural resources, be it soil, water or plant life.

“When we utilise these natural resources sustainably, we preserve our heritage, making sure that future generations will also enjoy the resources,” Ncube emphasises.  The Zimbabwean-born researcher’s focus is water and agriculture, trying to find solutions for communities at all levels, in areas such as drought, climate change, and water resource management.

“Heritage is ours to celebrate, to uphold and to preserve for future generations,” she says.

Ncube’s longterm goal is to continue to find solutions in water resource management, environmental conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity.  Her research covers both scientific and indigenous knowledge. In 2015, her team of researchers completed a project on: Insights into Indigenous Coping Strategies to Drought for Adaptation in Agriculture in the Karoo.

“We were amazed by the rich knowledge that exists within farming communities at all levels, from commercial to smallholder farmers”. The work remains one of the most interesting research projects she has ever done.

“If we can find ways of integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge, farmers are likely to be less impacted by future droughts and climate change.”

Ncube, also a part-time lecturer in Civil Engineering and Surveying also hopes that women will take charge of restoring heritage in South Africa and in Africa, especially in her field. “I believe the restoration of our heritage is everyone’s responsibility, therefore everyone should participate. Many wonderful attributes make us unique as a people, and we can use these to build a cohesive nation, whether in research or the arts. We can also collaborate with other African nations in these spaces.” 

She is currently writing (an invited) book chapter on indigenous knowledge systems in water management.

“Findings from this chapter will culminate into further research on indigenous knowledge systems in water and agriculture,” she remarks. Her day job entails writing proposals, going out to the field to collect data, talk to the farmers, communities, and organisations that support them. She also supervises Master’s and PhD students and lectures undergraduates in Water and Waste Treatment, Environmental Engineering and Soil Science.

“I would like to do my bit in reducing poverty and improving food security. Water scarcity, drought, and climate change pose huge challenges that require multidisciplinary approaches. I would like to create more research linkages locally, nationally, and internationally,” she adds.

With her busy schedule, Ncube finds a very thin line between work and relaxation for a researcher because there is always a paper to be written or a thesis to mark. However, she loves singing, “so you will always find a good song playing from my phone or car and I sing along... I also love walking along the river or the beach or to just sit and marvel at the beauty of nature”.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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Teaching and Learning enjoyed centre stage recently when the university, for the first time, honoured recipients of in-house as well as external teaching awards at one event.

Normally only the winners of the Institutional Teaching and Learning Excellence Awards would be lauded in this way, but this year the honour was extended to faculty awardees, Teaching Advancement at University (TAU) fellows and the CPUT winner of a 2017 National Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award. The awardees were given the opportunity to give a short presentation on their teaching philosophy and practice, after which they took questions from the audience.

This year’s institutional winners are Drs Muhammad Nakhooda (Applied Sciences) and Mark Marais (Health and Wellness Sciences). Siddique Motala from the Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying received the national teaching award from Council of Higher Education (CHE) and the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of South Africa (Heltasa). Nakhooda together with Drs Hanlie Dippenaar (Education) and Xena Cupido (Fundani CHED) are TAU fellows, while Dr Ayesha Toyer was recognised by the Faculty of Informatics and Design for her teaching skill.

According to Prof Anthony Staak, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, good teachers are often not given the recognition they deserve. “There is a lot more we can do, but it’s heartening to see that the Department of Higher Education and Training are supporting teaching endeavours through, amongst others, staff development. Occasions like these, where teaching excellence is celebrated, also make a contribution,” says Staak, who together with Fundani CHED hosted the event.

Assoc Prof James Garraway from Fundani CHED expressed the hope that an event like this would hosted again next year and that it would eventually become a fixture on the university’s events calendar.

Written by Abigail Calata

The Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying (Cape Town campus) held its annual awards ceremony on 14 May 2008. Prizes were given to deserving students for their achievements in 2007.

Bongiwe Ciya was awarded the prize for best CPUT first-year student in Surveying. She also received the South African Geomatics Institute (SAGI) trophy for the best first-year Surveying student in South Africa.

The trophy for best Geographic Information Systems (GIS) student was awarded to Dieter Greeff. Tania le Roux received the trophy for the Best student in the Surveying Diploma. Daniel Pretorius received the SAGI prize for best student in Surveyng 1 and 2 in South Africa. The award was presented by Charleen Allen, a representative of SmartTech, who sponsored the prize.

In the Civil Engineering category, Jacob Scholtz and Marius van den Heever shared the award for best first year student. It was presented to them by Carmen Lawrence from Bergstan.

Taryn Jones received the SAICE award for best third year student. She also received the trophy for the best Civil Designer project as well as the best student in all three years of the National Diploma: Civil Engineering.

Nomusa Makhanya received the trophy for the best first year Allycad project. Paul Mills was awarded the prize for the best BTech dissertation and Dewald Engelbrecht received the prize as best student in Project Management.

Gavin Lloyd, president of SAGI was the guest speaker at the awards ceremony.

By Raubie Raubenheimer and David Evans, Engineering Faculty

Written by CPUT News
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A willingness to tackle difficult topics and include creative influences in his lectures have earned a CPUT lecturer a top teaching award.

Siddique Motala, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying, was recently announced as a National Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award winner for 2017 and will formally receive the award at a gala ceremony in November.

The award is made on behalf of the Council of Higher Education (CHE) and the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of South Africa (Heltasa) and recognises the unique contributions winners make to their classrooms.

Motala was also awarded the CPUT Faculty of Engineering’s Teaching and Learning Award in 2016 and credits his achievements to an interest in exploring more than just quantitative teaching methods.

“In Engineering there can be a split between the hard sciences and the soft, which is the part that would be more interested in aspects like ethics. This could translate into a situation where ethical considerations are simply a box to tick. Ultimately to me a surveyor doing their job ethically is doing their job properly,” he says.

In an effort to encourage his students to explore more creative solutions Motala doesn’t shy away from discussions about race, religion, class and even the Fees Must Fall debate. Additionally creative avenues like history, art and a deliberate focus on Africa makes his students relate to one another in completely innovative ways.

“It is unfortunate that our local students will often be able to point out New York or London but not Benin or other African countries, this has presented an opportunity for foreign African students to take the lead in class,” he says.

Motala, along with two other winners, Drs Mark Marais and Muhammed Nakhooda, will also be recognised at an Institutional Teaching and Learning Awards ceremony event next week.

Written by Lauren Kansley
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Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.