Electioneering on campus

The President proclaimed April 14 as national Election Day.

The university anticipates a lot of campaigning and electioneering on campus by various political parties and other interested groups. To this end, UCT has adopted the Special Electoral Rules and Code of Conduct to govern and regulate all campaigning and electioneering. This will include, among others, posters, public meetings, debates and other forms of electioneering.

Should any student society, organisation or individuals want to organise for electioneering on campus, please contact Lebethe Malefo (student development officer) on 650-5047 or malefol@its.uct.ac.za, or at office number 7.19 on the 7th floor of the SDSD Building on upper campus. Please also contact Malefo for any queries regarding elections on campus.

The university also will be calling on volunteers as election monitors. The special Electoral Rules and the Electoral Code of Conduct can be found on the UCT website at www.uct.ac.za/uct/policies/electoralrules.pdf.

Also benefiting

Among those smaller communities that will benefit from Professor George Ellis's R10-million Templeton prize is The Imagine Cape Town initiative. Their name was inadvertently omitted from the list in the #23-06 edition, which carried the news.

Five-star staffers sought

Help! Our flow of five-star staff nominees is drying up. Please don't forget to send in your candidates for our regular column celebrating our stalwart colleagues, especially those who rise above the mundane to provide superlative service to the university. You can forward your nominees to Helen Théron, e-mail theronh@bremner.uct.ac.za.

Equity contracts

Seventy-eight percent of the value of professional appointments awarded by UCT was allocated to firms which meet the minimum equity criteria. The figure was 32% for the previous 12 months.

According to the university's Building and Development Committee (UB&DC), approximately R2-million worth of building related work has been awarded to black- or woman-owned companies or principals.

Of these, R800 000 was awarded to Ninham Shand for a planning project related to the Jammie Shuttle. A woman engineer was involved in this project.

Another commission, worth approximately R100 000, was awarded to woman-owned architectural firm, CS Studio Architects, for upgrading lecture theatres.

Wellness Week starts on Wednesday

Diarised the UCT Wellness Week for staff yet? If not, you may want to consider the healthy Mediterranean fare that will be on sale for the fair's duration (11h00 to 15h00) from March 31 to April 2 in the Graduate School of Humanities quad.

While you're snacking on low fat tapas, enjoy the line-up exhibitors who will be there, everyone from alternative health practitioners to gym and fitness fundis. These include sports sage Professor Tim Noakes, who will advise you how to reverse your cardiac risk, this on Thursday, April 1, at 12h45 in the quad.

Please book for the fitness assessment with Body IQ (you can earn Vitality points and exploit the special at medical aid rate); the Direct AIDS Intervention (DAI) voluntary counselling and testing services, as well as the many other services available. You can do so by e-mailing Ottoline Clapham at oclapham@bremner.uct.ac.za. For the eye screening/testing and DAI services you may also book through the consultant at the event.

And don't forget the special prizes and handouts!