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Off-campus students at the centre of Safety Summit

04 November 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Charl Devenish

SK Luwaca at UFS Safety Summit for off-campus students — Sikhululekile Luwaca, leader of the UFS Safety Champions, addresses a delegation at the Higher Education Safety Summit from 18-19 October 2019 at the Bloemfontein Campus.

A meeting of minds over student safety recently took place at Kovsies. The Higher Education Safety Summit saw a cohort of 165 students from the University of the Free State (UFS), Central University of Technology and Sol Plaatje University, collaborating with the heads of Protection Services from the respective institutions to devise a safety blueprint specifically focusing on the off-campus environment.

“The rental tribunal came on board to assist with rental disputes between students and landlords, in addition to accreditation issues being discussed,” Sikhululekile Luwaca, former SRC President of the Bloemfontein Campus and leader of the UFS Safety Champions that form part of the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice.

Luwaca further said that the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality also committed to assist the universities in addressing crime and enforcing by-laws. “A strategic safety plan was developed around spatialisation and zoning of student communes, developing a system that will assist universities to establish where students stay by using technology such as geographic information system (GIS),” he added.

What were the objectives of the summit?
Being the first of many to come, the summit set out clear objectives which all stakeholders have committed to work tirelessly to achieve, both in the short and long term.

The goals of the summit were threefold. Firstly, the intention was to build capacity between students and staff of all institutions involved to implement programmes by transferring the skills and knowledge between one another.

Secondly, the idea was to gather and consolidate input from the various higher-learning institutions and by so doing diversify the solutions. Thirdly, the purpose of the summit was to create an official platform where partners may consult on interventions that will ripple from the local, to the provincial and further to national level.

Andiswa Msomi, Spatialisation Group Leader and the Safety Champions’ administrator said she appreciated the shift in perspective that the summit brought. “The summit brought to my attention that sometimes we focus so deeply on one aspect of a problem that we end up not seeing alternative solutions. Due to active participants, new solutions came up, new ideas were brought forth and more importantly, we were able to get other institutions on board,” she said.

What are some of the tangible outcomes?
Going forward, an internal report which focuses on crime prevention measures will be presented to all UFS stakeholders. An external report, which will be submitted by the Safety Champions to the government in January 2020, is expected to be integrated into the Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy.

News Archive

UFS in forefront with ASGI-SA initiative

2006-05-10

At the conceptualisation colloquium and stakeholder dialogue were from the left Dr Aldo Stroebel (senior researcher at the UFS Research Development Directorate), Dr Edith Vries (acting Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Development Trust) and Prof Frans Swanepoel (Director: UFS Research Development Directorate).

UFS in forefront with ASGI-SA initiative

Two staff members of the University of the Free State (UFS) have been appointed as members of the advisory board of the national programme for the creation of small enterprises and jobs in the second economy. This programme forms part of government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGI-SA).

Prof Frans Swanepoel, Director of the UFS Research Development Directorate and Dr Aldo Stroebel, senior researcher at the UFS Research Development Directorate, are working with a team of experts from the UFS on a draft implementation strategy for the national programme. Both Prof Swanepoel and Dr Stroebel are also associated to the UFS Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

“The strategy is being developed in collaboration with institutions like the Independent Development Trust, the Department of Agriculture, the National Development Agency and the Department of Trade and Industry,” says Prof Swanepoel.

The other team members of the UFS are Prof Basie Wessels, Director of the Mangaung-University Community Partnership Programme (MUCPP) and Mr Benedict Mokoena, project manager at the MUCPP.

Dr Stroebel was also member of the organising committee of a conceptualisation colloquium and stakeholder dialogue that was recently presented in Johannesburg. The conference was attended by more than 400 delegates from government departments, higher-education institutions and civil society, including Dr Kobus Laubscher, member of the UFS Council.

The conference was facilitated by Ms Vuyo Mahlati, previously from the WK Kellogg Foundation’s Africa programme and opened by Ms Thoko Didiza, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs.

“The colloquium formed the basis of an induction workshop during which a group of 150 individuals (50 teams of three) from all nine provinces, identified to initiate the implementation of the national programme, was trained and orientated towards an induction manual in collaboration with Hand-in-Hand, an Indian counterpart,” says Prof Swanepoel.

Dr Stroebel and Mr Benedict Mokoena formed part of the team to conceptualise and finalise this training manual. The induction training includes a case study of a successful community self-help partnership model, namely the MUCPP at the UFS. Prof Wessels and Mr Mokoena are both playing a leading role in the further development of subsequent training initiatives throughout South Africa, in partnership with the relevant provincial departments.

“The involvement of the UFS in the programme is a compliment to us. It reflects the value government sees in the use of academics and experts in the management of the ASGI-SA initiative. It is also an indication of one of the aims of the UFS to play a role in South Africa and Africa and in the transformation and change that is taking place in our country,” says Prof Swanepoel.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
10 May 2006

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