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29 October 2018 Photo Thabo Kessah
Qwaqwa Campus students march for safety and improved social services
Phuthaditjhaba Station Commander,Brigadier Matsoso Mohloare; Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s Advocate Frans Dlamini; and Lerato Seekane from the Private Accommodation Providers Association signing a memorandum from Sakhile Mnguni.
Hundreds of students and staff from the University of the Free State’s Qwaqwa Campus recently marched to the Phuthaditjhaba South African Police Service to highlight their unhappiness about lack of safety and other services provided by various stakeholders in Qwaqwa.

“Our students have experienced continuous harassment, rape, burglaries, assaults, intimidation, and related unacceptable behaviours from criminal elements in the community and in government departments,” said SRC President, Sakhile Mnguni, reading from the memorandum of demands. “The SAPS, Departments of Health and Justice and Constitutional Development, as well as Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality are the biggest perpetrators. We demand visible policing where most of our commuter students reside, and on the main road. We also demand that the SAPS will take previously reported cases seriously and investigate them thoroughly. From the Department of Health, we demand abolishment of tribalism in the offering of services and that staff must acknowledge that they serve the entire community.”

Mnguni said the students demanded that the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development should work closely with the SAPS to ensure that all cases are quickly resolved. “Cases take forever to be resolved and all we get is a case number, but no progress,” he said. “From Maluti-a-Phofung Municipality, we demand basics such as water and electricity. The municipality must cater for the needs of students who reside within the municipality; for example, we need street and high-mast lights and maintenance thereof, as it is very dark, especially between campus and Phuthaditjhaba.”

Private accommodation service providers were not spared the rod. “Landlords must be held accountable for the goods stolen and damaged within their premises. They must put the necessary safety measures in place and meet the standards for accreditation by the university’s Housing and Residence Affairs (HRA). They must also reduce unreasonable rental amounts,” he added.

Representatives from the relevant institutions and departments signed and received the memorandum and were given seven days to respond.

The march was the highlight of the Safety Week activities which included the distribution of whistles and talks on criminality and the consequences thereof. It was a collaborative effort by the SRC, Protection Services, and Student Affairs. 

News Archive

Rasool lauds our university
2011-10-24

 
At the dinner at the residence of the South African Ambassador to the USA, Mr Ebrahim Rasool, were, from the left: Prof. Debra Stewart, President of the Council of Graduate Schools in the USA; South African Ambassador, Mr Rasool; Prof. Jansen; and Prof. Molly Corbett Broad, President of the American Council on Education (ACE).

The Ambassador for South Africa to the United States of America (USA), Mr Ebrahim Rasool, recently hosted Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of our university and a group of representatives from major science councils, foundations and universities at his home in Washington DC. Our university is the first South African university to be hosted at the official home of the Ambassador.

“The University of the Free State has shown South Africa and the world how to work with the past and how to make the past work for them. “You are a thought leader who had the privilege not to be comfortable with your own ideas of history; you understood the need to change and embraced it. You have moved the fastest towards racial and human togetherness of all the South African universities,” Mr Rasool said.
 
Prof. Jansen responded by saying that Africa needed strong academic universities and that had to be the focus of tertiary institutions across the continent. “We must create opportunities for people to be together and to learn from each other. The UFS is an experiment of human togetherness – and this experiment is taking off,” he said. 
 
During his visit to the USA, Prof. Jansen also discussed research partnerships and new placements for UFS staff and students through exchange visits.

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