Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
01 January 2018

After South Africa’s battle with the record-breaking drought of 2015, Prof Andries Jordaan from our Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa(DiMTEC) saw room for improvement in dealing with this kind of disaster. 

Drought impact

Commercial farmers   who are usually net exporters of food crops   and communal farmers who own the bulk of the country’s livestock, were all hit hard in 2015. Most of the latter had no resources to spare as the drought progressed. The concern about the drought’s impact on the country’s food production and availability resulted in a joint goal of preventing food scarcity during future droughts.

Prof Jordaan’s visit to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the US, several years ago prepared him to better equip communities in South Africa to deal with drought situations. “I recognised that in spite of the impact DiMTEC has been able to make on disaster preparedness, a gap remained in disaster response in South Africa.”

Sharing knowledge

In August this year Prof Jordaan again visited the NDMC. This time he requested a few key players in South Africa’s agriculture and disaster response communities to join him. With him were Janse Rabie, head of Natural Resources at AgriSA, a nonprofit organisation that functions as an interface between the government and about 28 000 South Africa farmers, and Moses Musiwale Khangale, director of Fire Services for the South African Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

The South African delegation met with and learnt from climatologists, geospatial technologists, and outreach and planning analysts. 

News Archive

UFS Centenary 2004/05: Sports Festival
2004-05-07

Win or lose! It is part of sportsmanship. The Kovsie Sports Festival will take place on Thursday, 13 May to Saturday, 15 May 2004, as part of the UFS’s centenary celebrations. Through this event, Kovsiesport will focus on the many sports opportunities offered on campus. Fit or unfit, first team or no team, there is an opportunity for every staff member and student to participate.

This exceptional sporting weekend will start on Thursday, 13 May 2004 at 17:15, with a 2,5km fun run (or walk) on the campus. It will start at Pellies Park (the first official rugby field on campus). Men and women will take part separately in five different categories. They are:

  • Lecturing staff members
  • Administrative staff members
  • Support service staff members
  • Hostel residents
  • Alumni
     

After the fun day on Thursday, the serious sports activities will commence. Different league matches are scheduled to take place from Friday, 14 May to Saturday afternoon, 15 May 2004. The Northern Tertiary Tennis League, as well as the Cross Country City League will take place. Hockey, netball, cricket, squash, basket ball, rugby and soccer matches have also been scheduled. The Shimla’s City Cup match will take place on Saturday afternoon on Shimla Park.

After the sports activities on Saturday evening, we will have another chance to socialize. Medix Residence is organising a special Idols concert at 19:00 in the Callie Human Centre as part of this fun weekend. Idols from 2002 and 2003 will perform. They are Brandon October, Anke Pietrangelli, Poseletso Sejosingoe and Bianca le Grange. Tickets are available at Computicket (Greyhound stall, Tourist Centre in Park Way).

The festival will be a weekend to relax and enjoy. Please participate in the fun walk, support Kovsiesport and join the Idols in an evening of song.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept