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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

Intravarsity brings Kovsie Campuses together
2012-05-09

 

Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses find each other in sport, arts and culture.

 

Intravarsity Photo Gallery
 

Intravarsity

Two campuses, one university, students coming together for a weekend filled with sport, arts and culture. That was the backdrop to Intravarsity 2012, which was held at the University of the Free State (UFS) on 4 and 5 May 2012.

Students from the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses came together on the Main Campus to compete in soccer, netball, cross-country, basketball, debating and chess.

The Qwaqwa Campus raked up victories in soccer with their men’s and women’s teams beating their Bloemfontein counterparts. The women’s team won 3-2, while the men triumphed with 1-0.

Bloemfontein Campus beat Qwaqwa Campus 34-12 in netball, 2-0 in chess and 36-34 in basketball.

However, Intravarsity is not just about sport. Students from the two campuses also engaged in art, cultural and leadership events. These events included a musical festival with top local DJs and a leadership breakfast attended by the student leadership from both campuses.

Talking at the leadership breakfast, Prof. Kwandiwe Kondlo, Head of the Centre for Africa Studies, urged student leaders to strive for selfless leadership. “We want our student leaders to be better leaders than we are. Perhaps at one moment some of you may end up leading this country. I hope when your time comes you will save South Africa from the democratisation of shamelessness and corruption, which has gained the upper hand.”

Mr Rudi Buys, Dean of Student Affairs, told the student leaders that the institution was in crisis five years ago. “Today our campuses are together. I hope the significance of the weekend is not lost.”

Intravarsity 2012 replaced this year’s Intervarsity. The annual Intervarsity between the UFS and North-West University (NWU) has been postponed to 2013.
 
Kovsie student leaders discuss leadership at Intravarsity


Student leaders from the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses attended a leadership breakfast during the Intravarsity weekend of 4 and 5 May 2012. The breakfast, held on the Main Campus, was hosted by the Division: Student Affairs.

Taking lessons in leadership from Prof. Kwandiwe Kondlo, Head of the Centre for Africa Studies, the Kovsie student leaders discussed the duties and responsibilities of leadership, not only on our campuses but also throughout the country.
 
Highlighting the role of student leadership Prof. Kondlo told students they needed to be active partners in building a cohesive and united university.
 
“Student leadership is important in the life of any university; it creates conditions the university requires for the construction and production of knowledge. This is very important; hence cooperation between student leadership and management is so vital.”


Prof. Kwandiwe Kondlo’s speech that he delivered at the leadership breakfast. (pdf format)
 

 

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