Phinda Swaartbooi is the newly-elected President of the Central Student Representative Council (CSRC) and the first woman in the history of CPUT to occupy the position.

Phinda has been deployed into the office by the South African Students Congress (SASCO) after incumbent president Skhulule Mpetsheni could not complete his term.

She says the fact that she is the first female President at CPUT has not yet sunk in to her as she was not even aware of this feat until she saw her picture posted on social media with the caption, "First female President".

“I want to thank the organisation SASCO for the deployment, the movement has shown that indeed there is no social revolution without the liberation of women as alluded to by Thomas Sankara,” she says. “The struggle for women in leadership and the fight against the patriarchal system must continue and advance.”

Phinda adds that her source of inspiration is God and the support from her family.

She commenced her studies at CPUT in 2016 when she enrolled for a Diploma in Landscape Technology, but later changed courses when she realised that her core passion was assisting people and advocating for human rights. That was how she developed passion for her current course, Nursing Science, for which she is in her third year of study.

The 27-year-old is a staunch SASCO member who previously served as Political Commissar with a mandate to organise students to work towards transformation and advocate for a single co-ordinated system in institutions of higher learning that is non-racial and non-sexist. She assures the CPUT community that the role of the CSRC is to serve and represent the interests of students with integrity, accountability, transparency and accessibility to their fellow students.

• For the duration of Women’s Month, we will be profiling several high profile CPUT women whose achievements and activities help us to become One SMART CPUT.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Anele Gebenga, An MTech student in Business Administration, has walked away with this year’s Abe Bailey Travel Bursary Award following a rigorous selection process.

His political leadership in the South African Students Congress and the role he played in providing educational support to Lentegeur High School learners in Mitchells Plain earned him the prestigious award.

“You have been selected for your exceptional leadership qualities and community service and we congratulate you on this outstanding achievement. This prestigious award has been made to over 800 South African students of outstanding calibre since 1951,” reads the letter sent to him by the Abe Bailey Trust.

Anele says he wants to use his experience as motivation to the students he interacts with as a Retention Officer in the Project Management Department that, no matter where they come from their dreams can be fulfilled.

He has been applying to the award since 2016 when he first saw an advertisement on campus notice boards calling for applications to the bursary award.

Anele and his counterparts from other South African universities will benefit from the enriching educational tours and team-building exercises in Cape Town from 26 to 28 November, before departing for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the next day.

 “In Addis Ababa we’ll visit the African Union offices and some heritage sites before jetting off to the United Kingdom where we’ll visit the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh,” he says.

The focus of the Abe Bailey Trust is leadership development and the Trustees wish the bursaries to be awarded to persons who are academically strong and have shown exceptional qualities of leadership and service.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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