Launch of Non-Profit Organization Addressing Food Insecurity Amongst Tertiary Students in South Africa

Johannesburg, 10 November 2021 - Non-profit company, Feed a Student on Rainy Days launches its first initiative to address student hunger in South Africa’s universities. Rainy Days SA seeks to raise awareness about the crisis of food insecurity affecting vulnerable students from underprivileged backgrounds.

Rainy Days SA, an initiative of Feed a Student on Rainy Days, is determined to make a difference in the lives of students affected by food insecurity. Food insecurity can be described as the state of having unreliable access to sufficient food.

The charity organization is run by sisters, Lolo Ntshiqa and Asanda Ntshiqa, whose humble beginnings are similar to the realities faced by many Black South African students. “Our parents fought against all odds to ensure we received quality education from institutions they could only dream of attending,” said Asanda, “Who knows what kind of life we would have had, had it not been for the sacrifices they made?”

Government programs, like the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), which provides financial aid to underprivileged students, has opened doors for more young people from underprivileged backgrounds to attend institutions of higher learning. However, many of these students continue to face challenges, such as food insecurity, throughout the course of completing their diplomas or degrees.

According to Lolo Ntshiqa, the impact of student hunger can influence students’ academic success. “When a student is hungry, all they can think about is where their next meal will come from. In class, they may be absent-minded or suffer from brain fog due to the low energy they are running on. Not having access to a basic human need, such as food, can also lead to poor mental health, causing students to skip classes or drop out of university.”

Rainy Days SA is on a mission to raise awareness around the issue of food insecurity, particularly on how it affects students. The organization calls upon students, alumni, public institutions, and businesses to join the movement and assist in finding practical solutions for providing low-cost, nutritious, and affordable food packages to vulnerable students.

You can support the charity by visiting their website, www.rainydayssa.org and making a financial contribution, from as little as R10, which will go toward raising funds for student food packages. If you have a social media account, you can support the cause by following the organization’s social media pages and joining the conversations. On Instagram and Twitter (rainydays_sa) and Facebook and LinkedIn (Rainy Days SA). 

To partner with Feed a Student on Rainy Days, or for any further inquiries, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

About Rainy Days SA

Rainy Days SA is dedicated to feeding South Africa’s tertiary students who are faced with food insecurity, and protecting their dignity. We hope to receive the support of the youth, corporate organizations, and local government to raise awareness on the food insecurity crisis, and provide low-cost grocery package solutions.

Meet the sisters behind Rainy Days SA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=othehXiRE8Q

Media Contact
Lolo Ntshiqa
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: www.rainydayssa.org

In 2019, UJ Arts & Culture embraces the power of the arts to ignite the passion of its students and audiences.

A division of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA) at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), the Arts & Culture department is gearing up to present another exciting programme set to appeal to audiences with diverse sensibilities.

“Few things in life is as passion-driven as the practice and enjoyment of the arts. Creativity is not the preserve of artists alone. The arts form the social fibre of our nation and deserve to be elevated and nurtured as part of the holistic human experience,” says Head of UJ Arts & Culture, Pieter Jacobs. “It is rare for students from across a university to have access to participate in the arts in the way they are able to do at UJ. Generally, these opportunities are exclusively reserved for students registered for undergraduate courses in the arts. UJ takes the holistic development of its students seriously and recognises the value of student engineers, teachers, accountants, economists, and many more, developing the soft skills required to thrive in the ever-changing world,” he continues.

Over the past 14 years, UJ Arts & Culture has earned its spot as one of the key role players on the arts and entertainment landscape and prides itself on numerous awards. In 2018, this legacy continued with UJ Choir being crowned world champions in the Folk Music category at the World Choir Games while its student production Choir Boy received an Encore Award at the National Arts Festival as well as a nod for best student production by the South African Theatre Magazine. Its flagship interdisciplinary project that involves more than 300 FADA students received nine Broadway South Africa awards for its rendition of Reza De Wet’s African Gothic.

Through the UJ Arts Academy a range of free opportunities to develop creative skills are made available to students, staff and alumni. A key component of the Arts Academy is the 66-member UJ Choir. Other music opportunities offered include the UniJoh Chorale, Jazz Band, Drumming Group and Orchestra. Dance classes in latin, ballroom, ballet, hip hop, afro-fusion and contemporary dance are offered as well as acting classes and poetry sessions.

UJ Arts & Culture hosts University events and external events including large meetings, strategic breakaways, conferences, lectures, concerts, festivals and theatre productions at its venues. Facilities operated include the Art Centre on the Kingsway Campus with a 428-seater Theatre, an 18-seater conference room and two studios; the Experimental Theatre, also on the Kingsway Campus, is a flexible space primarily used for and by students; and the 180-seater Con Cowan Theatre with adjacent studios is based on the Bunting Road Campus. Venue bookings for 2019 and 2020 is currently open.

The 2019 #FollowYourHeART programme includes an exhibitions programme, a stand-up comedy series, theatre and dance seasons, a music concert series, UJ Weekend of Jazz, UJ Youth Arts Festival and the Izimbongi Poetry Festival: 

#LoveYourHeART Exhibitions ProgrammeA partnership with the Embassy of Brazil will see UJ Art Gallery host Rodrigo Petrella’s photo exhibition, Mekaron, in February.  Following Farieda Nazier’s 2018 PhD residency at UJ Arts & Culture, Post Present Future, will be hosted at the Apartheid Museum and the popular PPC Imaginarium will return to the University’s Gallery in April. Curating the Cube is a 21-year retrospective exhibition, reflecting on Curator Annali Dempsey’s tenure at the Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit and then UJ after its amalgamation. Yannis Generalis’ solo exhibition will be followed by another 21-year celebration presented by the Ampersand Foundation. South African heavyweight Diane Victor’s solo exhibition will be followed by a collaborative showcase comprising works of both the UJ and MTN art collections. 

#ListenToYourHeART Music Concert SeriesKicking off the series is the popular South African songstress, Anna Davel in collaboration with the Bruckner University Big Band, followed by the avant-garde duo, La Musa, from Vienna. UJ Choir will join forces with South African gem, Gloria Bosman and will tour to Potchefstroom, Nelspruit and Sasolburg and will mark the end of the year with its customary Celebration Concert. The UniJoh Chorale will present a Mother's Day concert and participate in the City of Johannesburg Choral Festival. The music programme will end on a high note with the hugely popular gala fundraiser, A Grand Night for Singing, in support of the Dean’s Bursary Fund.

#CelebrateYourHeART Festivals ProgrammeUJ Arts & Culture’s urban music offering, UJ Weekend of Jazz, will return in 2019 as well as the UJ Youth Arts Festival and the Izimbongi Poetry Festival. UJ Arts & Culture’s offering at the National Arts Festival will include Kafka’s Metamorphosis adapted for the stage by Steven Berkoff, directed by Alby Michaels with Khutjo Green, Ameera Patel, William Harding and Craig Morris as well as a new one-man production developed in residence, iNDUKU. UJ Arts Academy students will present the classic, Lord of the flies, under guidance of debut-director Ayanda Bulose.

#MakeYourHeART Theatre and Dance SeasonsOut the Box Comedy, presented in partnership with POPArt and Goliath and Goliath, is a series of stand-up comedy shows leading up to Out the Box Comedy Special, bringing together some of South Africa’s funniest comedians to the Art Centre Theatre in October. The theatre line-up includes seasons of Metamorphosis, iNDUKU and Lord of the flies.Let the right one in, an ambitious project undertaken as part of the FADA interdisciplinary project, will enjoy a development run in October. Moving into Dance will be hosted at the UJ Art Centre Theatre for two weeks bringing the company’s 40th year celebrations to a close. This will be followed by an international collaboration between Tribhangi Dance Theatre and a UK-based dance company. 

#LiveYourHeART Residency ProgrammeRight of Admission, a collaborative work between Alberta Whittle and Farieda Nazier, will be developed in residence at UJ Arts & Culture during 2019. Performance Artist, Kieron Jina, will create a new piece entitled Rise of the African Queer Deities and Ayabonga Makanya, a new creative voice, will collaborate with award-winning director and UJ Arts & Culture Production Manager, Jade Bowers, on iNDUKU.For more information visit UJ Arts & Culture website and venue booking system at www.uj.ac.za/arts. 

NOTES TO THE EDITOR

About UJ Arts & CultureUJ Arts & Culture, a division of the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture (FADA) produces and presents world-class student and professional arts programmes aligned to the UJ vision of an international university of choice, anchored in Africa, dynamically shaping the future. A robust range of arts platforms are offered on all four UJ campuses for students, staff, alumni and the general public to experience and engage with emerging and established Pan-African and international artists drawn from the full spectrum of the arts.In addition to UJ Arts & Culture, FADA (www.uj.ac.za/fada) offers programmes in eight creative disciplines, in Art, Design and Architecture, as well as playing home to the NRF SARChI Chair in South African Art & Visual Culture, and the Visual Identities in Art & Design Research Centre. The Faculty has a strong focus on sustainability and relevance, and engages actively with the dynamism, creativity and diversity of Johannesburg in imagining new approaches to art and design education.   

Although there are career workshops and, universities and colleges open days aimed at exposing career choices to prospective learner, choosing a career can still be overwhelming to some matric learners in South Africa. This is mostly the case when learners are not well clued up in terms of what is the gap in the market versus what career learners wish to pursue.

Learners' career choices are mostly influenced by their existing social networks or social circles. In these networks, parents play a big role in influencing the ultimate career choice due to them being the primary funders for children's education. Parents are also mostly the role models to their kids. Nevertheless, child's personal career choice can still deviate from the parents wishes.

Due to the social dynamics of being in matric in South Africa, a learner can be living in a family where both biological parents are not even educated and (apart from Teaching and Medical Doctor famous careers) know nothing about what to study for. A learner can also be living in a single parent household where poverty is predominant. In this case, social networks can also be highly uneducated or jobless, therefore becoming irrelevant in terms of offering valuable career insights to a learner. 

In the process of choosing a career choice, the following are mostly critical for a learner:

• knowing a learner's strong inborn talents and physical abilities;
• having some knowledge of what skills are and will be in demand after completing studies;
• what career choices are there within the category of learner's career preferences;
• where to actually enroll for a qualification a student likes;
• how much is the course;

In the digital age we live in, information on the above critical items can easily be found on the internet by a learner or parent. But what if a learner doesn't even have reasonable internet connection (because of: high cost of data, no smart phone, no computer, and no sound knowledge of searching for information online) ?  These are the issues which need to be addressed holistically in the high school levels.

Even though a matric learner might have sound internet access and a rich social network which is well informed in terms of career choices, a learner may still be faced with a challenge of identifying a perfect course to study for. It is rather overwhelming to go through so many Institutions' websites to identify which specific course is ideal. Many Universities and Colleges course content is not neatly and easily presented online. Students find themselves going through Pdf brochures to Word Documents in search of courses to enroll for. Some of the universities don't even bother to delete previous outdated brochures. 

In terms of addressing some of these challenges, there is a website: mycourses.co.za which help student to find what courses they can apply to. The website neatly organises courses from various universities and colleges in relevant career categories (from Property Agent to flight Attendant Careers). The website  also let prospective learners to submit their courses preferences through an online form. Based on what the learner wishes to study, relevant institutions will therefore respond with relevant course information.

Check Courses offered at iQ Academy

New and affordable 3D printers offer highly accessible learning tool for universities, colleges and schools 

Johannesburg, South Africa, 22 May, 2017 - RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the global distributor for engineers, has introduced a pair of high-reliability affordable 3D printers from Zortrax that are ideal for educational establishments to teach students about the possibilities offered by 3D printing. Universities, colleges and schools can use these machines as a key tool for teaching and learning about 3D design, enabling students to realise ideas, concepts and designs in highly accurate and quickly produced models. 

Employing single-extruder LPD (layer plastic deposition) printing technology, the reasonably priced Zortrax M200 and M300 3D printers are reliable, efficient and offer exceptional quality with high dimensional accuracy and repeatable precision. This enables the high-quality printing of detailed elements that duplicate models without any loss of the original appearance, as well as completing extensive print jobs with almost no maintenance.  

The M200 pack is fully integrated plug-and-play system that allows users to get up-and-running immediately and includes the 3D printer, starter kit, dedicated intuitive software bundle Z-SUITE, and compatible material. Specifications of the M200 include: workspace dimensions of 200 x 200 x 180mm; 90 to 400-micron resolution, wall thickness capability of 400 microns (minimum) to 800 microns (optimum); and single printable point resolution of 400 microns.

Other key specifications include material diameter of 1.75mm and a nozzle diameter of 0.4mm.  Physical dimensions of the printer are 345 x 360 x 430mm without the material spool and 345 x 430 x 430mm with the spool. In addition, there are a number of extra options available including the Hotend V2, perforated plate V2, and side covers, which keep a stable model temperature during the printing and cooling process to reduce the risk of warps and cracks. 

Materials are available in a wide selection of professional grades, qualities and colours to suit different design requirements, and include Z-ABS, Z-ULTRAT, Z-HIPS, and Z-PCABS. The Z-ULTRAT filament comes in pastel shades of yellow, pink, purple, blue and turquoise; Z-ABS in white and pure black; Z-PCABS is a polycarbonate ABS ivory filament; and Z-HIPS comes in black. The range also enables the selection of materials that offer high durability against mechanical stress or high resistance to temperatures or even chemicals.  

The Zortrax M300 3D printer builds upon the capabilities of the M200 and offers a larger workspace with dimensions of 300 x 300 x 300mm and 140 to 300-micron resolution, optimal wall thickness dimension of 800 microns, and single printable point resolution of 400 microns. The M300 is ideal for designs using the Z-HIPS material, and provides a spool preview to allow users to check the material usage and colour. The M300 pack comprises the printer, side covers, starter kit, key to Z-SUITE software, and two spools of material. 

Compatible with stl, obj, dxf and 3mf file types, both machines support Mac OS X/Windows 7 and newer versions, and have access to a helpful model library. Further accessories available for both machines include the Zortrax 40 x 40mm fan cooler and extruder cable with adaptor.  

The Zortrax M200 and M300 3D printers are now available from RS. These new 3D printers strengthen the existing comprehensive range of educational products and solutions stocked by RS: http://za.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=/education  -

About RS Components
RS Components is the market leader in the high service level distribution of electrical, electronic, mechanical, tools and industrial products. Operating in 26 countries whilst serving a further 100 through third-party distributors, RS serves every sector of industry in the procurement of their products relating to maintenance, repair, operations, low volume production, research and development.   With over 500 000 products across 2500 leading brands, the company is committed to ensuring that their 1,5 million customers have fast access to a broad, as well as deep range, of products and technologies, all under one roof. 

RS’s customers, whether ordering single or multiple items, experience a quick, easy, secure, painless and cost effective process. The RS catalogue, available at za.rs-online.com, offers full colour pictures with extensive clear product specifications.Free access to thousands of datasheets ensures the correct product choice. Order placement is easily facilitated through za.rs-online.com, the call centre, e-mail, fax and trade counter. Locally held stock is delivered to customers within 24 hours, and products held internationally, within four to six working days.    

It is proven that departments traditionally spend 80% of their time sourcing products that account for only 20% of their total procurement spend. RS is focussed on reducing the customers “total cost of product ownership” by reducing the need to make multiple calls to various companies to source products, reducing supplier related administration and allowing for the amalgamation as well as consolidation of supplier bases. 

Through this process, procurement efficiency is improved and time is freed up to concentrate on the more important business decisions. 

For more information, please visit the website at za.rs-online.com 

Press Office
Le-andra OlivierPR and Communication Specialist RS Components South Africa This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.+27 11 691 9345 Further information is available via these links:Twitter: @RSNewsSA; @RSElectronics; designsparkRSFacebook: facebook.com/RSSouthAfricaRS Components on LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/company/rscoms 

Relevant Links: RSProRS Components South Africawww.electrocomponents.comDesignSpark Magazine - http://www.designspark.com

Salary negotiations between staff bodies and University of Cape Town management have become deadlocked after management refused to negotiate as per the recognition agreements with each Union, and instead provided the Unions with a final, non-negotiable offer in response to Union demands. Both the Employees Union and the Academics Union’s members voted to reject this final offer, and management has indicated its unwillingness to return to the negotiating table. Both the Employees Union and the Academics Union declared disputes on Friday with the University in efforts to break the deadlock.

Despite the Unions’ attempts to get the University to negotiate as set out in its recognition agreements, Prof Francis Petersen (on behalf of Management) has responded by reiterating that it considers the proposed below-inflation increase a “major stretch for the University” and underlined that management “cannot agree to any higher increase”. Petersen informed staff bodies late on Sunday night that  UCT intends to unilaterally implement its proposed offer, despite rejection by staff.

The EU and the AU are concerned that the implementation of the increase, while couched as an attempt to ease the financial pinch for staff, is in fact a strategy aimed at dividing staff and removing the urgency for reaching agreement.

Staff view management’s treatment of the wage negotiations as a slap in the face as it continues a worrying trend of low priority afforded to staff concerns, and a blatant disregard for the agreements that are in place for consultation. Management’s offer forces staff, many of whom earn low salaries and struggle to make ends meet, to take a pay cut for the second year in a row. The deadlock over negotiations also further erodes already-low staff morale, which suffered as a result of efforts to keep UCT open for business during the protests of last year.

UCT’s staff are cognisant of the fact that the higher education sector is under severe financial pressure, but do not believe that this crisis can be solved by sacrificing salaries. UCT’s staff have already worked to meet management’s saving targets and austerity measures, and have borne the brunt of frozen posts, voluntary separations, early retirement processes, and even retrenchments to help the University weather the financial crisis.

The greatest disappointment for staff bodies has been the bad faith bargaining that has characterised this round of negotiations. Management not only proposed a final offer that is well below UCT’s own negotiated policy, but is also claiming financial affordability as the justification for their offer, whilst still planning a surplus budget. The Unions have provided for a number of non-salary items in order to improve working conditions, which have been ignored up to now.

Contact for comment:  

Ulrike Rivett, Chair: Bargaining Unit (Academics Union), 082 9404349

Andrea Plos, President: Employees Union, 083 6637072

Maanda Mulaudzi, President: Academics Union, 082 813 3857

Yasmin Fazel-Ellahi, Organiser: Employees Union, 082 553 1833

Kelley Moult, Vice President: Academics Union, 082 625 6722