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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.
Villa Bravado orientation practice
2010-08-02
The University of the Free State (UFS) takes note of forbidden initiation practices which Residence Committee Members (RCM) of Villa Bravado, a men’s residence of the UFS, participated in during September and October 2009. A video of the events is currently widely being distributed.
Earlier this year, the UFS management was informed about the events by students who had also been involved in the initiation practices and management took note of that with great dismay.
These events took place despite the comprehensive amount of support and assistance regarding transformation which is continuously provided to students in residences. The UFS clearly and regularly communicates to students that initiation is strictly forbidden.
After the management had been informed of the matter, it was immediately addressed and the following measures were taken by the Dean: Student Affairs, Mr Rudi Buys without delay:
- The Student Head of the residence was immediately suspended as RCM member; and
- Disciplinary proceedings were immediately instituted against the Residence Head because of his alleged involvement in these forbidden practices. The case is currently under investigation.
The UFS is convinced that the event was not an incident where black students acted against white students, because black members of the Residence Committee had undergone the same initiation exercise earlier. The misconduct was a continuation of a forbidden initiation practice that is not allowed at the UFS.
“I expect that these events, which took place last year, were the last of students exercising forbidden initiation practices and once again I strongly wish to express the loathing that my management and myself have for any form of forbidden initiation practice,” said Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.
Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (actg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@ufs.ac.za
2 August 2010