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11 April 2018 Photo Leonie Bolleurs
First accredited ICS training in SA presented at UFS
Prof Andries Jordaan, Head of DiMTEC, with Greg Archer from the United States Forest Services, and Yong Sebastian Nyam, a DiMTEC PhD student from Cameroon.
The University of the Free State’s (UFS) Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DiMTEC) and the Free State Umbrella Fire Protection Association (FSUFPA) presented the first training exercise in the Free State, offering practical experience regarding the implementation of the Incident Command System (ICS) under simulated emergency conditions.

An Exercise Coordination Team (ECT), consisting of US instructors, under the leadership of Mike Kopitzke from the United States Forest Services, together with Johann Breytenbach from FSUFPA and supported by local personnel, facilitated the exercise.

Training complete with sand table exercise 
This dual site desktop exercise took place at the Rooipoort Training Centre outside Dewetsdorp and the DiMTEC offices in the Agriculture Building on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus. The Incident Management Team (IMT) training – complete with a sand table exercise   was presented at Rooipoort, At the same time a simulation of an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was offered at the DiMTEC offices. 

According to Prof Andries Jordaan, Head of DiMTEC, the exercise was based on a variety of actual scenarios that had previously taken place elsewhere in the Free State. The exercise simulated a train and bus accident on the Thaba Nchu road. “Using an incident like this keeps the training realistic and relevant,” he said.

In these exercises the work of different departments, including South African Police Services (SAPS), South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Transnet, Spoornet, Traffic Department, and Eskom are coordinated. “We would like to work with the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) to implement a uniform Incident management system in South Africa where all departments speak the same language and have the same understanding of the role and responsibilities of a command structure,” Prof Jordaan said.

Accredited training the outcome
In 2017 Prof Jordaan, General Elias Mahlabane from the SAPS, and Johan Breytenbach from the FSUFPA, attended an incident command course in California in the US. They were introduced to the National Incident Management System (NIMS) in the US. The system was implemented after lessons learned during 9/11. “According to the NIMS structure, all government organisations at all levels, as well as emergency agencies, had to standardise terminology and systems,” said Prof Jordaan.

Insight gained during the visit and a work relationship with the United State Forest Services, provided Prof Jordaan and Breytenbach the necessary background to conduct training for incident management teams.

Currently DiMTEC is offering accredited ICS 100, 200 and 300 courses. To qualify as incident command managers, students need to attend the ICS courses together with the practical training. As part of the training they also need to shadow a qualified ICS manager during two real incidents. These courses are taking place in conjunction with the FSUFPA. 

News Archive

Mandela statues and the issue of public representation
2015-09-04

   

Prof Grant Parker, Associate Professor of Classics and Co-Director of the Centre for African Studies at Stanford University, USA, presented a public lecture on the Bloemfontein Campus on 27 August 2015, in which he explored the topic of ”Memorialising Mandela after Rhodes Must Fall”. What stories do the multitude of Mandela statues tell us about the man? Our society? Ourselves? These were some of the questions Prof Parker addressed during his lecture.

Paradoxes
Prof Parker discussed some of the paradoxes presented by the Mandela statues. The huge 9m high Mandela statue at the Union Buildings in Pretoria does not necessarily reflect his humility. Iconic statues strewn across the world do not reveal Madiba’s appeal. “Madiba’s charm,” Prof Parker said, “was all about his ability to relate to people of very different backgrounds. People who were his enemies would – to their surprise – find a humanity they were not expecting. It’s very hard to reconcile that with the colossal statues.”

Rhodes Must Fall
On the topic of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, Prof Parker said that “the debates around it seem to express the frustration of deepening equality in general and lack of demographic change.” He also believes that, although the campaign centres on statues, there are much deeper issues at play that need to be addressed.

Artists should be part of the conversation
Prof Parker also advocated that artists’ voices should be incorporated into the creative processes of public art. “There is a much greater need for creative artists,” he concluded, “to be part of conversations, not only about what we as South Africans want to commemorate, but how we do that. I would very strongly suggest that this be done by non-figural representations.”

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