Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
16 July 2020 | Story Valentino Ndaba
Add these emergency safety contacts to your speed dial.

Staying safe during the coronavirus pandemic extends to ensuring that students at the University of the Free State (UFS) are safe from crime. Crime in South Africa remains an unfortunate reality which continues to affect students, staff and the institution in general. 

“Crime requires constant vigilance from the community and this can only be achieved through initiatives that are aimed at informing the community on what to do and what not to do. To this end the BSafe Safety First flyer is geared at informing specifically the student community on safety measures that must be taken,” said Cobus van Jaarsveld, Assistant Director: Threat Detection, Investigations and Liaison at Protection Services.

The Safety First flyer is a guide for students to be crime-conscious whether at their accommodation, on the street, or in their vehicles. It also offers tips on how to act responsibly as far as alcohol and drugs are concerned.

Engaging students on their safety 

UFS Protection Services recently engaged with off-campus residence students in Bloemfontein in order to provide tips on how to stay safe in their neighbourhoods. During the engagement, the new Safety First pamphlets were distributed, and students were encouraged to join the Student Crime-Stop Brandwag WhatsApp group.

As from 15 June 2020, Nissi Armed Response was deployed from 18:00 to 06:00. This initiative has already led to them responding to several suspicious persons and vehicles, as well as some minor incidents and disturbances. Two arrests were made on different occasions as a result of the deployment. In the first incident, a suspect was arrested on 27 June 2020 after a burglary in Brandwag, and the second relates to a suspect who was arrested on 10 July 2020 after threatening students at Universitas.

These successes were the result of student and community participation in providing information, coupled with excellent response from private security companies, including Nissi Armed Response, VR Security, and BloemSec.

News Archive

UFS student's essay nominated for Berlin Roundtables
2010-02-22

Ms Chrismi-Rinda Kotze
Photo: Supplied


An essay by Ms Chrismi-Rinda Kotze, a staff member and student at the University of the Free State's (UFS) Unit for Language Management, has been selected for the 12th Berlin Roundtables on “Cultural Pluralism Revisited: Religious and Linguistic Freedoms”. The focus of this theme is on religious and linguistic minority rights and the challenges of multicultural societies.

Her essay entitled The Linguistic Landscape as Mechanism in Multicultural Societies, focuses on the importance of the written language in the public space as a mechanism with which to regulate and develop a multicultural society as it is a means of access to participation in society.

The Berlin Roundtables on Transnationality are international conferences that consist of workshops and lecture series for 30 to 65 participants selected by an international jury based on essay competitions. It provides a forum for international young academics and journalists to discuss the political and social challenges facing a global civil society.

At the end of each Roundtable, the Irmgard Coninx Foundation will award up to three participants a three-month research grant at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) and the Humboldt University in Berlin.

They are jointly organised by the Irmgard Coninx Foundation, WZB and the Humboldt University Berlin.

The Roundtables will take place from 7–11 April 2010 in Berlin.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept