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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

Research project gives insight into the world of the deaf
2005-11-30

Mr Akach in conversation (using sign language) with his assistant Ms Emily Matabane. Photo: Lacea Loader

UFS research project gives insight into the world of the deaf

The Sign Language Division of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Afro-Asiatic Studies and Language Practice and Sign Language has signed a bilateral research project with the universities of Ghent and Brussels to write a book on sign language. 

“We want to compare the Belgium and South African sign languages with each other.  The book will be about the deaf telling us about themselves and how they live.  It will also focus on the use of story telling techniques and the grammar used by deaf people.  We want to see if the hand forms and the grammatical markers and other linguistic features that deaf people from these two countries use are the same or not,” said Mr Philemon Akach, lecturer at the UFS Sign Language Division and coordinator of the research.  

According to Mr Akach, the sign language community in South Africa, with about 600 000 deaf people who use South African Sign Language (SASL) as first language, is quite big.  “Over and above the deaf people in South Africa, there are also the non-deaf who use SASL, like the children of deaf parents etc.  This book can therefore be used to teach people about the deaf culture,” he added.

Another of Mr Akach’s achievements is his election as Vice-President of the newly established World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI).  The association was established earlier this month during a conference in Worcester.

Mr Akach has been actively involved with sign language interpretation since 1986 and has been interpreting at the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) since 1987.  “My appointment as Vice-President of the WASLI is an emotional one.  I have been involved with deaf people for so long and have been trying to create awareness and obtain recognition for sign language, especially in Africa,” said Mr Akach.  WASLI is affiliated to the WFD.

According to Mr Akach there was no formal structure in the world to support sign language and sign language interpreters.   “Now we have the backup of WASLI and we can convince governments in other African countries and across the world to support deaf people by supporting WASLI and therefore narrow the communication gap between the deaf and the hearing.  My main aim as Vice-President is to endeavour for the recognition of sign language and spoken language interpreters as a profession by governments,” he said. 

According to Mr Akach the formal training of interpreters is of vital importance.  “Anybody who has a deaf person in his/her family and can communicate in sign language can claim that they are an interpreter.  This is not true.  It is tantamount to think that all mother tongue or first language speakers are interpreters.  Likewise students who learn sign language up to whatever level and are fluent in signing, should still join an interpreter’s programme,” he said.

“Sign language interpreting is a profession and should be presented as an academic course alongside other spoken languages.  The UFS has been taking the lead with sign language and spoken language interpretation and was the first university on the African continent to introduce sign language as an academic course,” he said.

“Although sign language has always been an unknown language to young people it has become quite popular in recent years.  This year we had a total of 160 students at the Sign Language Section of the UFS and the numbers seem to increase steadily every year,” he said.

Mr Akach’s assistant, Ms Emily Matabane, is deaf and they communicate in sign language.  Ms Matabane also handles the tutorials with students to give them hands-on experience on how to use sign language.  


Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:   (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
30 November 2005

 

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