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BSafe

Safety and Security

BSafe

Safety and Security

First-year students: Your safety comes first

22 January 2020 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Sonia Small (Kaleidoscope Studio)

Safety read more — First-year students: Your safety comes first

Welcome to the first-year students at the University of the Free State (UFS) and best wishes for the 2020 academic year. We value your safety at all our three campuses and call on you to familiarise yourself with all safety features.
From safety off-campus and at residences, to personal security in general, the university has measures in place to ensure your well-being. Here are some of the resources available to you:

24/7 Operational Centres
Protection Services consistently works towards ensuring that security is tight on UFS campuses through its 24/7 Operational Centres. Emergencies and crime incidents that affect students may be reported at the centres. The certification of documents and drafting of affidavits are also facilitated at these centres.

Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) Cameras
All campuses are monitored by CCTV cameras on a 24/7 basis. A process is under way to further enhance cameras to cover hotspots. Recently 107 cameras were upgraded to improve the safety of students. The adequacy of lighting was assessed and a process is under way to improve lighting on campuses where weak spots were observed.

Red pole alarms (panic buttons)
Red pole alarms fitted with cameras were installed around the Bloemfontein Campus which are linked to the Operational Centre. Alarms are tested daily and any problems are attended to immediately. A process also under way to install red pole alarms on the South Campus.

Security Patrols
Security patrols are conducted on a daily basis on foot and by vehicles on all campuses to respond to student complaints and for visibility.

Security at residences
Security Officers are deployed around the female residences at night. Monthly liaison meetings are held between Protection Services with Housing and Residence Affairs to discuss areas for improvement and alternative options to ensure security.

Dedicated Investigating Officers
An investigating officer is on standby 24/7 who is available to students and staff who has a fully entrenched relationship with the South African Police Service (SAPS) Investigation Unit. All complaints are fully investigated, and cases being handled by SAPS investigators are also followed up by Protection Services.

Accreditation of off-campus residences
The Housing and Residence Affairs department, in collaboration with Protection Services, has conducted an assessment of off-campus student residences to check whether security at the facilities is adequate.

Student Crime Stop WhatsApp group
A WhatsApp group consisting of students, members of SAPS, the Community Police Forum (CPF), Sector Policing, Protection Services, and armed security companies was set up to share safety and security concerns experienced by students.

Dedicated security and SAPS vehicles deployed at identified hotspots
Security patrols are conducted at areas such as Brandwag, Willows and Universitas, where a large number of students live. In addition, joint crime awareness sessions with the SAPS are held to address issues that arise from time to time.

Distribution of whistles
The whistle project, in collaboration with SAPS, CPF and armed response companies, is currently under way. The UFS has purchased 10 000 whistles which will be distributed to students at all campuses.

Community Police Forum (CPF) membership
The UFS is represented on CPF committees. In the near future a CPF will be established on the Bloemfontein Campus to ensure student participation.

Emergency Services: Bloemfontein Campus
Protection Services: +27 51 401 2911 | +27 51 401 2634 | 0800 204 682
Ambulance: +27 80 005 1051 | 10177
Social worker: +27 73 182 3048
Kovsie Health: +27 51 401 2603

Emergency Services: South Campus
Protection Services: +27 51 505 1217
Ambulance: +27 80 005 1051 | 10177
Social worker: +27 73 182 3048
Kovsie Health: +27 51 401 2603

Emergency Services: Qwaqwa Campus
Protection Services: +27 58 718 5460 | +27 58 718 5175 | +27 58 718 5360
Ambulance: 10177
Social worker: +27 58 718 5090 | +27 58 718 5091
Kovsie Health: +27 58 718 5210

News Archive

From peasant to president; from Samora Machel to Cahora Bassa

2015-03-25

Prof Barbara Isaacman and Prof Allen Isaacman
Photo: Renè-Jean van der Berg

When the plane crashed in Mbuzini, the entire country was submerged in a profound grieving.

This is how Prof Allen Isaacman, Regents Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, described the effect President Samora Machel’s death in 1986 had on Mozambique. In a public lecture, Prof Isaacman spoke about the man, Samora Machel, and the influences that shaped Machel’s life. The event, recently hosted by the UFS International Studies Group on the Bloemfontein Campus, was part of the Stanley Trapido Seminar Programme.

Samora Machel: from peasant to president
Born in 1933 into a peasant family, Machel was allowed to advance only to the third grade in school. “And yet,” Prof Isaacman said, “he became a very prominent local peasant intellectual and ultimately one of the most significant critics of Portuguese colonialism and colonial capitalism.” Machel had a great sense of human agency and firmly believed that one is not a mere victim of circumstances. “You were born into a world, but you can change it,” Prof Isaacman explained Machel’s conviction.

From herding cattle in Chokwe, to working as male nurse, Machel went on to become the leader of the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo) and ultimately the president of his country. To this day, not only does he “capture the imagination of the Mozambican people and South Africans, but is considered one the great leaders of that moment in African history,” Prof Isaacman concluded his lecture.

Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007
Later in the day, Profs Allen and Barbara Isaacman discussed their book: ‘Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007’ at the Archives for Contemporary Affairs. As authors of the book, they investigate the history and legacies of one of Africa's largest dams, Cahora Bassa, which was built in Mozambique by the Portuguese in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The dam was constructed under conditions of war and inaugurated after independence by a government led by Frelimo. The dam has since operated continuously, although, for many years, much of its electricity was not exported or used because armed rebels had destroyed many high voltage power line pillars. Since the end of the armed conflict in 1992, power lines have been rebuilt, and Cahora Bassa has provided electricity again, primarily to South Africa, though increasingly to the national Mozambican grid as well.

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