The award-winning team from the University of the Western Cape's Institutional Advancement. Image: UWC

The University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) team at the Department of Institutional Advancement (IA) had its largest haul of awards on Thursday night (13 November 2025) since it began participating in the Marketing, Advancement, and Communication in Education (MACE) awards.

MACE plays a leadership role in the higher education, TVET and private education sectors within Southern Africa by providing practitioners in marketing, communication and advancement with high-quality development programmes, facilitating networking partnerships and transformation, as well as promoting best practices among these professions at our member institutions.

The awards are especially satisfying for professional and service staff at higher education institutions who work hard behind the scenes to enhance their institution’s reputations. The IA team scooped up 12 awards at the gala dinner in Johannesburg that traditionally concludes the annual MACE conference.

The 12 winning entries were:

BRONZE:

1. Winning Entry: Rector’s Farewell (Anesh Singh)
Category: Events – Single and multi-day
This entry was the event that celebrated the 10-year history of former Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tyrone Pretorius.

2. Winning Entry: Gen Z - Prof Balfour Edition (Cardré Goliath and Elethu Mpoki)
Category: Channels - Social Media
This entry was a social media post that went viral, introducing the new Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Balfour, to the student body.

3. Winning entry: Udubs Life (Taygon Sass)
Category: Channels – Printed Internal Magazines and Newsletters
This entry was a magazine celebrating the academic, sporting and cultural achievements at the University.

4. Winning Entry: Writing UWC’s Next Chapter of Leadership (Nashira Davids)
Category: Skills – Writing For News Channels
This entry was a news feature introducing the vision of the new Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Balfour, that was used widely in printed mainstream media.

5. Winning Entry: Through the Lens – UWC’s Moment of Transition (Shelley Christians)
Category: Photography – News, Feature Articles and Documentaries
This entry was a series of iconic images of Professor Robert Balfour, during his inauguration as Rector and Vice-Chancellor of UWC.

6. Winning Entry: The UWC Way – Professor Robert John Balfour’s Inauguration (Jesi Townsend)
Category: Skills – Videography
This entry captured an edited video of the poignant occasion of the inauguration of Professor Robert Balfour as the new Rector and Vice-Chancellor of UWC.

7. Winning Entry: #UWCGrad2025 – The Journey of Mojakhumo Rolene Molefe (Jesi Townsend)
Category: Skills – Videography
This entry was a video that showcased the day in the life of student Mojakhumalo Rolene Molefe who transitioned from a student to an alumna of UWC during her graduation.

SILVER:

8. Winning Entry: First-Year Education Excursion – 2025 (Jesi Townsend, Elethu Mpoki and Shelley Christians)
Category: Skills – Videography
This video entry followed the induction of first-year education students from diverse backgrounds at a camp where they were put through their paces in a team building exercise to develop their critical thinking about pedagogies.

9. Winning Entry: Thank you SETA – Abongile Thomas Mlanjeni (Jesi Townsend)
Category: Skills – Videography
This video featured the beneficiary of a SETA bursary paying tribute and gratitude for the journey that took him from the rural Eastern Cape to developing his skills in the virtual reality space at UWC.

GOLD

10. Winning Entry: Puppets for the Planet (Shelley Christians)
Category: Photography – News, Feature Articles and Documentaries
This entry featured the life-sized animal puppets created by artists resident at the Centre for Humanities Research in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The puppets travelled across the globe in a partnership with The Walk Productions to present ‘THE HERDS’ to raise awareness about climate change and the plight of animals.

11. Winning Entry: The Final Countdown – Rector’s Farewell (Jesi Townsend)
Category: Skills – Videography
This entry was a light-hearted special feature with high production value that catalogued the life and times of Professor Tyrone Pretorius - as the outgoing Rector and Vice-Chancellor of UWC - that was broadcast to staff and students attending the event.

12. Winning Entry: Skills – Design for Digital Channels (John Thwaits)
Category: Skills – Design for Digital Change
This entry was designed to attract a high school going audience to apply to choose UWC as the university of choice and incorporated elements of street art in the hip-hop tradition as a digital web banner and social media artwork.

Director of IA, Professor Anesh Singh, was delighted for the team.

“I am extremely proud of our team for their outstanding performance at the MACE Awards. More than two-thirds of our submissions received recognition, which speaks to the exceptional quality of the events, campaigns and creative work our team produced,” he said.

“The MACE Awards represent a peer review of the work undertaken by Institutional Advancement teams across the higher education sector in South Africa. To grow from two awards in 2023 to twelve this year is an extraordinary achievement and a clear reflection of the remarkable work the team is doing for UWC in the public domain.”