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07 May 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa
Social Support Unit launch
UFS Social Support Unit: Certain about uncertainty, comfortable with discomfort
The University of the Free State (UFS) Division of Student Affairs develops and implements co-curricular programmes, activities, and services that provide humanising daily-lived experiences to cultivate academic success, prosocial behaviour, student engagement and an inclusive institutional culture.

In April 2019, the DSA officially launched the UFS Social Support Unit, which seeks to offer support to students in need by assisting and aiding them to thrive and maintain high levels of overall well-being through interventions that facilitate a supportive environment for learning.

The unit aims to promote, restore, maintain, and enhance student success and wellbeing through social-support interventions, including family-related matters, sexual/gender-based violence interventions and referrals, food support, and other emergency social-support needs. 

According to Assistant Director: Kovsie Support Services, Elizabeth Msadu, “the Social Support Unit services are not limited to what has been stipulated in their mandate, as students are different, come from diverse backgrounds, and will likely experience varied and divergent  issues and dilemmas, since they are all unique and experience life differently.” 

The Social Support Office is located in Steve Biko House, Rooms 153 and 158. In addition to the services and interventions provided by the unit, Mojaki Mothibi, Assistant Officer for the Social Support Unit explained that students will also be provided with financial support through co-curricular sponsorships for academic (conferences and seminars) and leadership development (national and international conferences, seminars and community engagement programmes). He further said that students could also be supported in terms of their general social well-being in cases of bereavement, hardship mitigation, and other pressing issues they may face on a daily basis. 

News Archive

UFS law students sit in on exceptional case in the Supreme Court of Appeal
2011-09-21

 
At the Supreme Court of Appeal were, from left to right: Dr Beatri Kruger, lecturer in our Department of Criminal and Medical Law at the Faculty of Law; Adv. Ann Skelton, Amicus Curiae instructed by the Restorative Justice Centre; Ms Matsepo Soko, post-graduate student in Criminal Law; and Prof. Annette van der Merwe from the University of Pretoria.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

Fourth-year and master’s-degree students, from our Faculty of Law, had the privilege of attending the hearing of one of their prescribed cases in the module, Criminal Law, namely the State versus Tabethe, in the Supreme Court of Appeal. Apart from the fact that they could attend the hearing, the students were also addressed by experienced legal experts, Adv. Ann Skelton (amicus curiae, instructed by the Restorative Justice Centre) and Prof. Annette van der Merwe from the University of Pretoria, on the broad outlines of the case.

In this case, the accused was found guilty of raping his fifteen-year-old stepdaughter. The court imposed a sentence of ten years’ imprisonment, suspended in full, but with certain conditions. The conditions include 800 hours’ community service and stipulate that the accused has to follow a rehabilitation programme and that he has to give 80% of his income to the family in order to support the victim and her family.
 
This was the first rape case where, in following a restorative justice approach, exceptional conditions were imposed to address the interests of the victim who wants to proceed with her studies. The State appealed against the sentence.
 
Dr Beatri Kruger, lecturer in our Department of Criminal and Medical Law, who prescribed this case for the students, said, ‘The law students were indeed privileged to attend this auspicious and enriching occasion, which provided them with an insightful experience of how the law works in practice.’

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