South Africa welcomes back its newest cadets on Friday after 80 days at sea to Antarctica!

 

DSC_2243Pretoria: 14 February 2018

Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape will again be the receiving and welcoming city to about two dozen of South Africa’s newest cadets to successfully set sail – and venture for the first time into the icy Antarctica territory over the last the last 80 days.

The welcoming back ceremony takes place on Friday morning at the port of Port Elizabeth where the South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI) along with the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), the South Africa Maritime Training Academy (SAMTRA) and various stakeholders, including the media will see the cadets get off their their training vessel, the SA Agulhas on South African soil for the first time since 24 November 2017.

 

The 20 cadets comprising 19 deck and one engine, left the country on the day to join a group of Indian scientists in Mauritius and with whom they would spend the rest of the time at sea from the Indian to the Southern Oceans for about 60 days.

The cadets under the stewardship of Port Elizabeth based SAIMI are mostly from the country’s two universities specializing in maritime education and sailor development; the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and Durban University of Technology.

During the trip on which their supervision was under SAMTRA officials, the cadets underwent extensive training in their respective streams as part of their academic education towards a set of maritime qualifications including of engineering.

Sea training on board sailing vessels is a vital aspect of their maritime training and education and for which the SA Agulhas, hauled from certain retirement by SAMSA some five years ago, is designed.

After acquisition by SAMSA from the Department of Environmental Affairs, the SA Agulhas was converted into the dedicated cadet training vessel, complete with a state-of -the-art modern simulator that allows the students real time experience  of sailing and managing vessels in actual sea conditions.

The trip to the Indian and Southern Oceans over 80 days was the second by the SA Agulhas in 2017 involving, on each of the occasions, the deployment and training of young South Africans cadets in the company of scientists from India.

On their departure in November from Cape Town, the new cadets had high hopes and spoke well of their expected experience during the voyage in the video below.

This blog will again speak to them to find out if their experience matched their expectations. We will share those views on this blog from Friday onward.

Friday’s welcome back event is scheduled to take place at the port of Port Elizabeth from early morning till noon.

Among expected guests are senior officials of both SAMSA and SAIMI, among them Mr Sobantu Tilayi (COO at SAMSA) and Dr Malik Pourzanjani (CEO of SAIMI).

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SA research and training vessel, SA Agulhas reaches Mauritius en route to Antarctica: SAMSA

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(File photo) The SA Agulhas departing from Cape Town to Port Louis, Mauritius on Friday, 24 November 2017 to pick up a group of Indian scientists en route to Antarctica for the second scientific research and cadet training expedition of 2017. The sojourn will last at least 80 days.

CAPE TOWN: 04 December 2017

Maritime economy sector education goes full circle with entry of TVETs

Pretoria: 04 December 2015

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The creep of maritime sector education in South Africa may be decidedly slow, almost imperceptible yet it is an absolute certainty, and it is about to come full circle with the envisaged formal roping into the milieu of the country’s technical vocational education and training (TVET) colleges in a year’s time.

With TVETs on board, maritime sector-focused public sector education will have reached virtually all relevant levels of formal education structures in the country, from foundational (currently high schools) through to vocational and tertiary levels.

The ‘10th Province’ has it in good authority that TVETs will be drawn into the fray in earnest from January 2017, with the launch of a pilot project involving two TVET institutions in as many provinces; one in  KwaZulu-Natal and one other in the heart of Cape Town, Western Cape.

This follows the completion and approval of appropriate curriculum for a National Occupation Certificate in certain levels of discipline in seamanship that include, “Able Seafarer Engine”,   “Able Seafarer Deck”, “Able Seafarer Fishing”Marine Motorman Grade 2” and “Fishing Deck Officer”

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SA university students a good deal to back

By Sicelo Fayo

There is barely gainsaying that this past week’s events at the country’s universities involving students waging a mighty battle for the suspension or reversal of proposed increases in fees for the 2016 academic year were certainly a source of major concern to especially parents and sponsors.

That the issue of increased fees would be of direct interest to them, possibly as a short term financial benefit, would not dissipate or arrest parents’ concerns both for the safety of the youths and their positive progress in their studies, which process would preferably entail partly, their successful sitting for and passing the current’s year’s exams. The very timing of the action, coming so close to year end exams, would worry parents most.

But as observers would testify, the action which saw the country universities’ students marching not only on Parliament but also on the seat of Government at the Union Buildings in Pretoria with much bravado; was not their only achievement, nor did it reflect wholly on the student’s general performance and achievements at campuses.

For more on this story, read here or for video footage of the awards ceremony, click here

From handouts to an ace student: A South Africa youth excels in maritime studies in Vietnam!

Pretoria: 19 October 2015

Cyril Zenzele Makukula of KwaZulu Natal ain’t no ordinary young person – at least not if his extremely poor background on the one hand, marked sharply by sheer desperation of a life survived wholly and literally on hand outs, and on the other; his current exceptional performance as a maritime studies student at a foreign university in South East Asia; are anything to go by!

Zenzele Cyril Makukula (Photo source: LinkedIn)
Zenzele Cyril Makukula (Photo source: LinkedIn page)

The contrasts could not be sharper for ordinary expectations, nor his current exceptional class achievements so far, readily predictably given the background.

Zenzele’s “sharper than a razor blade” story emerged from Hanoi this week after first year students’ final year-end results released by the Vietnam Maritime University’s International School of Education a week ago, showed that Zenzele emerged as South Africa’s top performing student in his class at the university where he passed with five (5) distinctions out of six modules he was enrolled for in the current year.

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CENTRE FOR MARITIME EXCELLENCE KEEPS TABS WITH SAMSA SPONSORED STUDENTS

Staying constantly in touch with SA Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) financially sponsored students at the country’s various education institutions is among key priorities for Ms Sindiswa Nhlumayo, the executive head of the organization’s Centre for Maritime Excellence and to which SAMSA’s maritime economic sector education, training and skills development program is entrusted.

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SAMSA Centre for Maritime Excellence executive manager Sindiswa Nhlumayo (Seated, Front Left) with SAMSA sponsored Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) students (Standing: From Left to Right) Thando Jobela, Zamanuba Phandle,Sesona Matiso, Bulelwa Maseti, Vuyisani Mvakendlwu and Sabelo Hadebe. Standing with them (Standing: Third from Right) is Ms Charity Bodipa, executive personal assistant to Ms Nhlumayo, who (Seated far left) is with SAMSA HR executive manager Lesego Mashishi and next to whom is student Nosisikelelo Maseti
SAMSA Centre for Maritime Excellence executive manager Sindiswa Nhlumayo (Seated, Front Left) with SAMSA sponsored Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) students (Standing: From Left to Right) Thando Jobela, Zamanuba Phandle,Sesona Matiso, Bulelwa Maseti, Vuyisani Mvakendlwu and Sabelo Hadebe. Standing with them (Standing: Third from Right) is Ms Charity Bodipa, executive personal assistant to Ms Nhlumayo, who (Seated far left) is with SAMSA HR executive manager Lesego Mashishi and next to whom is student Nosisikelelo Maseti