IEC voter drive and other updates

Dear students and colleagues

This campus announcement aims to inform members of the University of Cape Town community about:

1. IEC voter drive on campus

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is conducting a voter registration drive on campus until Friday, 15 February, starting at 08:00 daily. Students will need their South African smart ID card, ID book or temporary ID to register for the upcoming national and provincial elections. The IEC signage will direct students to the various registration locations on campus.

• View the IEC poster.

2. New environmental sustainability director

The university has appointed Mr Manfred Braune as the new Director of Environmental Sustainability with effect from 1 April 2019. Mr Braune, who will be reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer, will be responsible for advancing UCT’s vision and commitment to environmental sustainability. He has over 10 years’ experience in senior and executive positions that have seen the development of environmental performance strategies and standards for buildings and precincts. A UCT alumnus, Mr Braune obtained his BSc in electrical engineering and a first-class honours degree in 1998.

• Read more about Mr Braune.

3. Load-shedding

On Sunday, 10 February 2019, Eskom announced the resumption of load-shedding, which will affect all UCT campuses.

UCT has put measures in place to ensure that minimal teaching and learning time is lost during load-shedding, and that the impact on all other university operations is reduced as much as possible. The university has made a request to the City of Cape Town that the medical campus be exempted from load-shedding, and the response to this is pending.

UCT’s upper, middle and lower campuses, the health sciences campus and all residences are in Area 15. Hiddingh Campus and the Graduate School of Business are in Area 7. Staff and students are encouraged to check the City of Cape Town load-shedding schedule accordingly.

During load-shedding, all buildings equipped with generators will have electrical power supply. The Sarah Baartman Hall, the Kramer Law Building, the Geological Sciences building, the Molecular and Cellular Biology building and the data centres have full-coverage back-up power supply. Some UCT facilities have generators to provide back-up power that is limited to research facilities, emergency lighting, some power points, and access and fire-detection systems. Other UCT facilities have uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) that will provide emergency lighting and some power points for a limited time – usually about two hours.

Wi-Fi will unfortunately not be available in most UCT buildings during power outages. Although UCT IP landlines will not function during load-shedding, the Campus Protection Services (CPS) landline (021 650 2222/3) will still be operational.

UCT has over 100 lifts. Staff and students are cautioned not to use these lifts 10 minutes prior to scheduled load-shedding times. Some of the lifts have emergency dial-out systems that will allow communication with CPS, and you are advised to use this service if necessary. Alternatively, make use of your cellphone to contact CPS on 021 650 2222/3, assuming that reception is sufficient.

• Check the City of Cape Town load-shedding schedule.
• See a list of UCT venues with back-up power-generation capacity.
• Read tips on managing load-shedding.
• Read the City of Cape Town media release.

4. Parking discs

The 2019 parking discs for students are now available for purchase at the Traffic Office on upper campus. Parking discs for staff are still not available, but the 2018 discs remain valid until further notice. New staff members are being issued with temporary discs.

Communication and Marketing Department

Read previous communications:

• From the UCT Executive
• Campus Announcements