In spreading joy this holiday season, the Media Department joined hands with the Prof Matsaseng Foundation in hosting a Christmas lunch for the children of Baphumelele Children’s Home in Khayelitsha. The event was held at the children’s home with over 115 children, ranging from babies to teenagers.

The Christmas party was made extra special with a picnic area, photo booth, games, arts and crafts, and sports and entertainment zone area with a jumping castle for the kids.

The foundation was officially registered in December 2023 to honour the work of Prof Thabo Matsaseng who has done exceptional work in the fertility space in South Africa and the world. He developed an affordable IVF method and has been giving back to society through his personal campaigns and charities of his choice.

“This year, the foundation wanted to spoil one of its beneficiaries with a more personalised and emotional experience because in the past 15 years, we had only dropped off donations and food for the children. This year was different. It was a huge success because of the support from its donors…and the children were happy”, said Sharon Moatshe, CPUT alumni and Operations Director of the Prof Matsaseng Foundation. Moatshe serves as a mentor to three third-year media department students who have interned at the foundation as part of their in-service training. Dr Adelina Mbinjama, a Lecturer in the Department was a guest volunteer who assisted on the day, and offered additional support and guidance to the interns.

Donors of the event included Rise Against Hunger, Dr Michelle Mark, Tiego Malibe, Mpho Mtsali and Maki Macholo. In addition, an amount of R10 000 was raised through the foundation’s backabuddy campaign.

Written by CPUT News
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The CPUT Media Department’s annual Photography Graduate Show will showcase the magnificent work produced by photography graduands.

The annual show, which will take place tonight (December 5) at the Cape Town Central Public Library, will explore the world of candid photography through the creation of motion.

The emerging creatives’ work will be exhibited at the Library until 14 February 2020.The theme centres around verity versus façade within photographic works.

The exhibition will also provide a platform for five of CPUT’s most prosperous photography students to showcase their photographs and be in the running to be awarded the title of winning exhibitor.

• The Media Department thanks Cape Lasers for sponsoring the equipment for the event.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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The Media Department and Faculty of Informatics and Design (FID), recently held its second in a series of Public Dialogues, under the theme Labour Conditions in South Africa: Are the workers being heard?

Held on the Bellville Campus, a packed house welcomed journalist, author, broadcaster and teacher, Terry Bell, and veteran trade unionist and the current Western Cape Provincial Secretary of Cosatu, Tony Ehrenreich.

The dialogue included participation from Journalism-, Photography- and Film and Media students. 

Specialist labour journalist and writer of the Inside Labour column in the Business Report, Bell began the dialogue by challenging students to think about the far-reaching effects of their stories and the role it plays within public opinion and perception.

“It’s important to ask the right questions. We are the eyes and the ears of the public. Public interest is paramount.”

Ehrenreich challenged and encouraged students to tell the workers’ stories. The event raised many points about the role of journalists including that of writing stories responsibly despite weighing pressure of the current economy and its effect on the media.

The interactive discussion saw the experienced panelists discuss various issues relating to the media practitioner and labour issues in South Africa, as well as the vital role journalists play in letting workers’ stories be heard.

Dialogue organiser and Senior Technician at the Journalism Department Xolani Vanda, says that the event allowed students to interact with industry role-players. “It’s important for students to be confident when engaging with key figures.”

By: Nurahn Ryklief

Picture by: Leandri Niemand

Written by CPUT News

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An academic in the Media Department, Sisanda Nkoala, has been appointed as a public representative on the Press Council of South Africa.

The Council’s primary aim is to promote and develop ethical practice in journalism and to promote the adoption and adherence to those standards by the South African print and online media.

“I am excited to have been appointed in this role because firstly, it allows me to apply my ongoing research into media ethics and ethical reporting by South African news entities. Further, as a lecturer in media law and media studies, the role makes the work I do even more relevant because it brings together what is going on in practice with the theoretical aspects of the courses that I teach.”

She said a member of the public had nominated her for the role after a call was made for nominees with expertise in media ethics and knowledge of legal matters related to media.

“I agreed, seeing that I strongly believe that the South African Press Council is an important entity in the news media regulatory landscape here in South Africa,” said Nkoala.

“The Press Council is an independent co-regulatory mechanism set up by the print and online media in South Africa to provide impartial, expeditious and cost-effective adjudication to settle disputes between newspapers, magazines and online publications, on the one hand, and members of the public, on the other, over the editorial content of publications. The mechanism is based on two pillars: a commitment to freedom of expression, including freedom of the media, and to high standards in journalistic ethics and practice.”

The Council is made up of media and public representatives. Public representatives on the Panel of Adjudicators join media representatives in the adjudication of complaints from the public against publications that subscribe to the Code of Ethics and Conduct for South African print and online media.

Nkoala joined the Media Department as a part-time lecturer, teaching radio production in 2016. In 2017 she was appointed full-time and conducts research and lectures on the language and rhetoric of journalism and journalism education.

“I believe academics must strive to ensure their work has social relevance and that is why opportunities like serving on the Press Council are so important for me because they ensure that there is synergy between the research and teaching that I do and the local journalism industry.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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The state of TV journalism was the focus of a thought-provoking webinar recently presented by the Media Department.

The panellists were eTV journalist Natalie Malgas, acting cameraman for the SABC’s George bureau, Sphiwe Hobasi and multi award-winning investigative journalist, documentary producer, visual art critic, writer on contemporary culture and author, Hazel Friedman.

Journalism lecturer Sisanda Nkoala said the webinar formed part of a series that will deal with different sectors of media including film, photography and communication and media broadly. “Journalism is the most topical at the moment, hence it was a starting point. The changes that are happening locally in terms of how newsrooms function and how news is understood, make exploring journalism particularly relevant,” she said.

Prof Nirvana Bechan, Head of the Media Department, said it is important to track where the professions currently are and to keep interest going in students apart from their academic studies during the unprecedented times of Covid-19.

Bechan said the next webinar, scheduled for next month, would focus on the future of motion picture and cinemas in particular.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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Media Department academic, Dr Sisanda Nkoala, has been appointed to serve on the Appeals Tribunal of the Film and Publication Board (FPB).

The FPB is a content-classification and regulation authority in South Africa, operating under the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies. The Board's function is to receive complaints or applications to evaluate a film or publication, to classify it according to its suitability for different audiences. These publications include movies, television programmes, computer games and music.

“The Appeals Tribunal, which I have been appointed to, is a structure of the FPB. Its broad mandate is to hear appeals against classification decisions made by the classification committees in respect of publications, films and games. Members of the Tribunal are appointed for a period of five years and serve on a part-basis by the Minister of Communications," said Nkoala.

The Tribunal determines whether, on the merits, the correct decision has been made by a classification committee. It is required by the Act to be independent and to carry out its functions without any bias.”

Nkoala was nominated by a member of the public who was aware of the kind of work she does as an academic.

“To this role I bring my expertise in media law, being a lecturer in this regard. I also draw on my work as a media scholar whose work focuses on the rhetoric and discourse of media texts,” she said.

“I am very excited and humbled by the appointment because the work of the tribunal is very important when it comes to protecting the public from harmful media content while at the same time empowering people through robust information sharing. In the digital age, where anyone can be a content creator and freely distribute material through online platforms, the work of the FPB is even more needed. “

One of Nkoala’s recent highlights was being invited by GIZ DataCipation project, a pilot working at the nexus between digital innovation and citizen engagement, to train the first ever cohort of African Union Media Fellows in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. The AU Media Fellowship equips African journalists and content creators to tackle challenges and opportunities of digital journalism.

“The organisers invited me to train the fellows after they came across an article based on a book chapter I wrote on how African newspapers are sometimes complicit in advancing an anti-African narrative when it comes to their news reports on health matters. This was another opportunity for me to draw on some of the findings of the work I am doing in my research.”

Another recent highlight was participating in the first meeting of the African Journalism Educators Network in Johannesburg, where journalism educators from around the continent gathered for a one-day symposium to discuss potential areas of collaboration to take journalism education in Africa to new heights. The network is spearheaded by Wits Journalism's Prof Franz Kruger, and Nkoala is a member of the steering committee.

“I was invited to present based on my ongoing research on multilingual education in journalism studies. I had the privilege of talking about my project on using the Early South African Black Press as a tool for a decolonial and multilingual journalism curriculum,” she said.

“I count it a real privilege to do research that does not primarily live in journal articles and book chapters only but finds expression in speaking to real-world problems that are facing media. It is particularly meaningful that the work has found resonance to the extent that I am being invited to address the very problems I identify in my different studies. With the FPB I look at issues of content with the AU Media Fellowship I had the opportunity to train journalists and content creators, and with the African Journalism Educators Network, I have the chance to come together with other educators to deliberate on how we can make a meaningful change at the level of the curriculum.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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His life’s journey has taken him from a difficult childhood in Zimbabwe to struggling to make ends meet in South Africa.

But Dr Trust Matsilele overcame the odds to become a respected journalist and successful academic, whose excellent teaching skills were recognised by the Institution earlier this year.

The senior lecturer in the Media Department is now celebrating the next step on his journey – the release of his first book, which comes less than four years into his academic career.

Titled Social Media and Digital Dissidence in Zimbabwe, the book is published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Matsilele, who joined CPUT in 2019, said the topic relates to his PhD studies, adding that he wanted to understand the intersection of social media and digital media as forms of counter-hegemonic expression.

“In most dictatorships in Africa citizens have resorted to using social media to counter state propaganda. My interest was really to see to what extent this was applied in Zimbabwe, in part because Zimbabwe remains a dictatorship. Some scholars locate it as a hybrid model which has some semblance of democracy as well as some semblance of dictatorship, so I was trying to understand how Zimbabweans were using social media to contest hegemonic narratives or to contest state narratives or state propaganda.”

He continued: “At the very core of the study was trying to understand how, historically, citizens have spoken back to power”.

Matsilele said that the literature that followed the Arab Spring tended to glorify social media as a revolutionary or revolutionising tool.

He was interested in understanding if this was indeed the case.

“After understanding that, I wanted to trace in African people’s lives their modes of expression protesting a domestic power. What I was trying to say was that African people have always protested and these are the ways that they’ve protested before social media. I’ve used African folklore as a point of departure, African proverbs, African idioms, African songs. I would trace the forms of protest that we are seeing in African people’s lives – how do they express themselves in today’s world or today’s social media sphere.”

Matsilele was born and raised in Zimbabwe where he and his twin brother were left at a police station as babies,

His story was documented in an article by his former employer, Forbes Africa magazine and outlines how he ended up working at a scrapyard in South Africa, living on a dumpsite to beating the odds to become a respected journalist and political consultant before pursuing a career in academia.

Earlier this year he was among the recipients of the CPUT Teaching Excellence Awards.

Matsilele thanked his colleagues in the Faculty of Informatics and Design for their support.

“One of the contributing factors that made the project a success is the support I received from the faculty, through the Dean making sure that there were available funds to do the editing of this work. I also received support from the Centre for Communication Studies and Prof Nic Theo was also very active in making sure I didn’t lose track.”

He expressed his gratitude to Dr Blessing Makwambeni (Acting HOD: Media Department) Prof Nirvana Bechan (HOD: Media Department) and other colleagues in the Media Department as well as the book’s reviewers and independent readers.

Matsilele is currently editing two books, one contracted with Palgrave Macmillan titled: New Ecology of Journalism in Africa: Innovation, Newsmaking Cultures and Citizen Engagement, which is expected  to be published later this year or early next year and another titled: Media, Social Movements, and Protest Cultures in Africa, currently being reviewed by Routledge.

“I am currently working on a project, with Dr Sisanda Nkoala, looking at how South African female politicians are appropriating social media. Together, with Dr Nkoala, we have co-authored four articles and one on talk radio has been published and another one is set for publication this December. I have also done some research with other colleagues within the department such as Dr Joseph Adebayo, Dr Blessing Makwambeni and Mr John Bulani. I believe that a department that researches in the community has a propensity to achieve shared outcomes.”

He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles.

Some of his affiliations include:

• International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) 
• Global Risk Journalism Hub, South African Affiliate researcher https://www.globalriskjournalismhub.com/affiliate-researchers  
• South African Communications Association member (SACOMM) 
• South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) member and education cluster committee member
• External reviewer for UCT's Centre for Film and Media Studies, Tshwane University of Technology and have also reviewed for the University of Johannesburg and University of Limpopo

*For more on the book, click here:

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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Emerging scholar, Sisanda Nkoala, has been awarded an Early Career Conference grant by the Association of Commonwealth Universities to present two papers at the International Association for Media and Communications Research’s (IAMCR) 2021 conference.

The IAMCR is the preeminent worldwide professional organisation in the field of media and communication research and the theme of this year’s conference, which will be held online, is: Rethinking borders and boundaries.

Nkoala, a lecturer in the Media Department, said the first paper she will be presenting is based on her ongoing research on South African television news reports on crime and justice called “Crimes Against Children: Evaluative Language and News Reports on Sentences”.

“This study explores how South African television news reports on sentence proceedings in criminal cases involving violent acts against children and is part of my PhD study.”

The second paper will be co-presented with her colleague in the journalism programme, Dr Trust Matsilele, and looks at the impact of Covid-19 on journalism education.

Nkoala was also recently selected as one of about 62 emerging researchers to participate in a data science summer school being run by the University of Pretoria and was awarded a scholarship to participate in this summer school.

“All of this has been through a competitive process of writing an application and providing evidence as to why, as an emerging researcher, I am deserving of these opportunities based on the work I am currently doing, and a track record of publication and other scholarly engagement. “

This work includes the publication of two book chapters so far this year, with a further two outputs (journal article and book chapter) due out at the end of May.

 The two book chapters that have been published this year are titled “A Rhetorical Analysis of Televised and Digitised News Reports on Economic Matters” and “An analysis of the content, discourse and programming strategies of South African business radio shows”. The second book chapter is also co-authored with Dr Matsilele.

 The other two publications due out look at journalism education. The first, a book chapter, relates to the use of multilingualism in journalism education, and the second, a journal article, looks at how the early South African Black Press, as a multilingual resource, can be used as an instrument to decolonise journalism education.

“ Both of these studies, I believe, are important in the ongoing conversation that the institution and higher education as a whole is having around how to meaningfully transform and draw on African pedagogies to add to existing knowledge in different fields. Through them, I have been able to bring in the voices of students and get their perspectives on some ways in which this can be achieved.”

 “I am really encouraged by these opportunities because as an emerging scholar, they affirm that the work I have been doing is meaningful and makes a contribution to my field. It also inspires me to continue working diligently and collaborating with colleagues. Finally, it is because of opportunities such as the RIFTAL funding I received to run my study on multilingualism and journalism education, that I have managed to get these outputs, so I am particularly grateful to Fundani, and sincerely commend the unit for all of the work that it does to encourage innovation in teaching and learning.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks

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The CPUT Mentorship Programme for Black Academic Women is delivering on its mandate of supporting participants to accelerate their careers.

Media Department lecturer, Dr Adelina Mbinjama, is amongst the mentees on the programme and has been awarded a research grant, allocated to mentees as part of the CPUT Career Advancement Grant.

Her project is titled: “A Transdisciplinary Approach to “Train-the-Trainer” for Digital Literacies, Cyber-ethics, Coding and Robotics: A Multilingual Pilot Study”.

Mbinjama’s mentors are Prof Justine Daramola and Prof Nic Theo from the Faculty of Informatics and Design.

"I'm immensely grateful for the seed funding from CPUT because it helped me think of a transdisciplinary research project that is currently a pilot study. I'm glad I could meet the requirements and that the project has potential to venture into other related research areas on cyber-ethics".

Last year she was awarded a Thuthuka Grant by the National Research Foundation for her project: "The Effects of Cyber-Ethics among Digital Marketers: A Case Study on Black SME’s in South Africa in the wake of Covid-19".

"I am learning new methods and conceptually developing ideas to address some philosophical and often difficult questions about the cyber world. I have done this with the NGO sector, I am now focusing on SMEs. Because of the nature of digitalisation, I foresee my work expanding trans-disciplinarily and transnationally. “

She said the Thuthuka grant had made her realise that although attaining some research objectives can be challenging, “it is not impossible”.

“Because of the Thuthuka grant, I have been able to work with a dedicated Master’s student who is carrying out an aspect of my research on cyber ethics. We have faced challenges along the way, but we are close to finishing up. I am excited about my research area and where it will take my academic career.”

Mbinjama recently published a paper in the journal Communicatio with the support of the grant titled: “Cyber-Ethics for NGOs during COVID-19: The Eight ‘Ethical Variables’ and a Microsocial Contract”.

Some of her other recent highlights include:

Selected as a member for the CPUT Transdisciplinary Grant for Emerging and Early Career Academics of R100 000 for the Biogas Project in Kyamandi, Stellenbosch under Prof Vincent Okudoh from the Department of Biotechnology. She will be involved in media and communication aspects of the project.

Becoming a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, which is chaired by Prof Izak Van Zyl, Director of the Centre for Postgraduate Studies.

Published a book chapter entitled, #VoetsekANC and Covid corruption: A Foucauldian discourse analysis of “A Song for the ANC” in Shepard Mpofu’s Digital Humour in the Covid-19 Pandemic. Perspectives from the Global South. Volume 2: Social media, laughter during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Patricia Smit, Manager: Capacity Development in the Research Development Directorate, said the CPUT Mentorship Programme for Black Academic Women takes the form of a small-scale mentorship programme focused on supporting the women in the advancement of their research careers.

Senior academics were invited to indicate their availability and commitment to becoming mentors for these women. These academics are mostly NRF-rated researchers. Mentees are women academics who have completed doctoral degrees and are working on their career plans and who would commit to working with a mentor to guide them in the process.

The aim is to assist the mentee to evaluate where they are on their career trajectory and assist them to plan with their mentor the next steps to ensure that they will become an established researcher within a reasonable time frame.

Mentees are invited to submit a proposal for a small amount to fund a research or career-related activity, which will result in accelerating their career.

The grant aims specifically to stimulate research activity amongst this group of academics, setting them up on a path to become well-rounded research leaders.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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Today marks 41 years since Black Wednesday, the day on which the apartheid government banned a number of newspapers and organisations.

CPUT’s Media Department and the SABC held a seminar and panel discussion on Wednesday (October 17) to commemorate the day and reflect on the theme: 25 years of “free media” 2019 and beyond.

Retired Constitutional Judge Albie Sachs was the keynote speaker at the seminar, which was held at the SABC’s Broadcast Centre in Sea Point.

“One of the reasons I feel so hopeful about South Africa is that not only (do) we have a Constitution, but the Constitution is working, elections are meaningful and are free and fair. We have a strong judiciary to make sure the Independent Electoral Commission functions and we have some of the greatest investigative journalists in the world and they have shown their mettle,” said Sachs.

He told the journalism students in the audience that they were the generation that had to continue the struggle to “enlarge that space of journalism integrity”.

Jude Mathurine, Head of the Journalism Programme, said media seldom takes times to engage in thoughtful reflection about where it has come from, what it was getting right and wrong and how it could do better.

“The story of the South African press is a complex story and it evolves side by side with the story of our growing nation. We don’t simply reflect that story, we are part of it. We are implicated in it.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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A group of CPUT academics are among the authors of a recently released report on digital readiness and using visual methods in Higher Education.

The report offers an overview of the teaching skills needed to face digital readiness during the pandemic, offering details about the pedagogical approach and methodologies to use, focusing on visual methods.

It is based on research from June to December 2021 within FutureAbility - Digital and transversal skills for online teachers, a two-year European-funded project under the Erasmus Plus Strategic Partnership. FutureAbility is a Strategic Partnership of nine organisations.

Assoc Prof Eunice Ivala, Director: Centre for Innovative Educational Technology (CIET), is the project leader representing CPUT. Dr SisandaNkoala, Senior Lecturer in the Media Department, is the project administrator. The other team members are Assoc Prof Candice Livingston, Head of the Department: Research and Postgraduate Studies; Assoc Prof Virimai Mugobo, Head of the Department: Retail Business Management; Rifqah Abrahams, Lecturer in the Media Department; Cheri Hugo, Lecturer in the Department of Design and Eran Tahor, Lecturer in Department of Film. Assoc Prof Daniela Gachago from the University of Cape Town is working on the project as a consultant.

“The project has three phases. The first phase was generating a report on the perspectives and experiences of educators who teach visual communication courses and use visual methods. This was based on a desktop study, focus group discussions and a survey of around 300 participants. The project's second phase, currently underway, is to create open education resources in online courses to address some of the gaps identified in phase one regarding the skills needed to teach online. The third phase, set for 2023, will be to roll out the courses and get participant feedback,” said Nkoala.

She said one of the key findings was that most respondents argued that the key challenges they faced teaching visual communication and using visual methods were a lack of student motivation, various technical problems and digital literacy.

Furthermore, the study found that online teaching exclusively harms courses and research that rely primarily on practices, as with visual communication-based courses. Online education and learning diminish the quality of interactions. As such, blended forms of teaching are foreseen as the most optimal approach in future by many professionals and students.

The project's next phase, which started in February 2022, is to develop courses to address these gaps and upskill lecturers to teach visual arts-related subjects and use visual methods online more effectively.

Nkoala said that in the short term, one of the key outputs from the study would be the development of online, open-access, multilingual courses that educators can take to upskill themselves on how to teach visual arts subjects and other subjects using visual methods in an online context.

The courses are being developed based on a literature review, focus group discussion and surveys with participants across the partner countries.

“The courses are being developed using design thinking principles which CPUT introduced to the partners. In particular, CPUT introduced the learning design through workshops based on our expertise as an institution in learning design. It is envisaged that any university can use the courses to train lecturers in this regard. The great thing about the nature of the courses being developed is that they are not solely for teaching visual arts courses but can also be used in any discipline which uses visual teaching methods,” she said.

Click here to read the report.

Written by Ilse Fredericks

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An academic in the Media Department is a member of a new working group on strategies to address mis/dis/mal-information in South Africa.

Sisanda Nkoala serves on the multi-stakeholder working group in her capacity as a public representative of the South African Press Council and said she would “no doubt” draw on her work as a Media Studies academic.

The mandate of this working group is, among others:

• To develop an evidence base on the causes, forms and disseminators of mis ­and/or disinformation and mal-information in South Africa.
• To map existing laws, policies and initiatives aimed at addressing mis- and/or disinformation and mal-information in South Africa.
• To understand the potential impacts and risks that mis- and/or dis-information and mal-information pose to democratic processes, including all elections, in South Africa.
• To engage relevant stakeholders and experts on responses to mis- and/or disinformation and mal-information in South Africa as well as abroad and identify the roles and responsibilities to be played by such stakeholders.

“The working group is a promising sign that the issue of mis and disinformation is on government’s agenda and the need to tackle it using research as well as practical strategies that involve various stakeholders bodes well for balancing the right to freedom of expression with the requirement to mitigate the harms caused by mis and disinformation,” said Nkoala.

The group recently had its first meeting and aims to complete its work over the next 12 months.

“To me personally this is a great opportunity to draw on my research expertise in media, as an academic in this field, as part of a group that will influence the country’s response to mis- and disinformation. As a member of the Press Council, it is also a great opportunity to hopefully shape policy on the issue and ensure that our public discourse is not polluted by mis-and disinformation.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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Associate Professor in the Media Department, LJ (Nic) Theo, has been awarded a C3 rating by the National Research Foundation.

Theo works across many areas in media and communication studies with a main focus on the semiotic mechanism by which subjectivity and consciousness are reflected and represented in media and communication.

“I have always been interested in language and its application and in how representation in visual media reflects social norms. My focus on Applied Communication coalesced in a PhD on how formal psychiatric definitions and diagnostic criteria communicate meta-theoretical assumptions about how people live in the world and fuel media representations.

“Since then I have focused specifically on meaning-making in mass visual media and journalism, with a niche in film screenwriting theory. I really enjoy exploring minutiae and meta-theory and understanding paradigmatically how individual units of communication come together to generate meanings that in turn influence the discourses that constitute our social and personal worlds.”

The award-winning academic started at CPUT in 2008 in the Film Production programme as a part-time lecturer, before progressing to a full-time contract and becoming permanent in 2014 as Senior Lecturer and eventually being promoted ad hominem to Associate Professor in 2016.

Theo has won a few awards over the years and has celebrated many career highlights.

The awards include the CPUT Institutional Teaching Award (2015), a Heltasa National Teaching Excellence Award (2016) and a Gold award for Research from CPUT (2019).

The highlights include being a judge on the South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) (2013-14), and a panellist and assessor on the Department of Higher Education and Training Creative Outputs Subpanel for Film and Television (2020-22).

“I currently serve as Chair of this panel (2023-25) and as a board member and ad hoc acting editor for the Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa (TD-SA). For the last few years, I have been a supervisory contributor to digital artifact development on the Heltasa Teaching Advancement at Universities (TAU) 3 and 4 programmes, which is great fun.

“My most rewarding career highlights, though, happen every year when I watch my students who have worked so hard walk across the stage at graduation.”

NRF ratings are allocated based on a researcher’s recent research outputs and impact as perceived by international peer reviewers. The rating of individuals is based primarily on the quality and impact of their research outputs over the past eight years, taking into consideration the evaluation made by local and international peers. It identifies researchers who count among the leaders in their fields of expertise and gives recognition to those who constantly produce high quality research outputs. Ratings are awarded in the following categories:

• A – Leading international researchers.
• B – Internationally acclaimed researchers.
• C – Established researchers.
• P – Prestigious Awards.
• Y – Promising young researchers

“I was seriously happy…a bit surprised since my research niche is not something that generally gets much recognition, but very pleased that I have been acknowledged as a contributor to scholarship,” said Theo about receiving the NRF rating.

In his free time, the academic has a range of interests.

“I don’t count myself as a designer or artist, but I make things for personal entertainment that many would not call ‘art’ but that entertain me. I like sculpture and enjoy whittling wood and making things out of found objects. I’m currently working on a minor project that I call ‘Poe-art-try’: small multi-material sculptural installations intended to be read as wordplay. I also collect antique books and cook.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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