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Unmasking the Shadow Pandemic

08 December 2021 | Story Michelle Nothling | Photo Supplied

Lentsu Nchabeleng — Dr Ntheno Nchabeleng was appointed as the Deputy Director in the Gender and Anti-Discrimination Office within the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice.

A total of 10 006 rape cases were reported between April and June 2021. This is according to the latest SA crime statistics for the first quarter of 2021/2022. From a sample of 5 439 of these rape cases, 3 766 of incidents took place in the victim’s home or that of the rapist. A shadow pandemic of gender-based violence against our women and children is raging in South Africa.

It is within this global and local context that the Gender and Anti-Discrimination Office (GEADO) at the university is making inroads into supporting survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) and changing gender stereotypes.

GEADO in focus

GEADO is situated within the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice on the Bloemfontein Campus. It is mandated to deal with incidents of unfair discrimination and GBV as it relates to the UFS community, and to conduct advocacy and training in these areas. Deputy Director of GEADO, Dr Ntheno Nchabeleng, explains that “through high-impact practices and interventions, the Office works to systematically reduce case attrition to ensure that all reports and cases follow procedurally just processes”.

GEADO has been established at all the UFS campuses with well-trained and fully equipped Senior Gender Officers leading each. Geraldine Langau—supported by research assistant Delisile Mngadi—is managing the office at the Bloemfontein Campus, Chelepe Mocwana the Qwaqwa Campus, and Sivuyisiwe Magayana oversees the South Campus office.

Addressing gender-based violence

Prevention and response to GBV are at the core of GEADO’s work. With our country wracked by sexual violence and femicide, “it has become a nightmare to be a woman in South Africa”, Dr Nchabeleng says.

Its preventative efforts focus on the underlying causes of GBV to transform patriarchal notions, misogynistic norms, power imbalances, and toxic gender stereotypes. Fostering collaboration with various strategic partners to strengthen its impact, GEADO recently started working with Amnesty International Sub-Saharan Africa and Amnesty International Latin America to spread awareness on various forms of violence experienced by vulnerable populations. GEADO has also partnered with other local stakeholders in an effort to eradicate GBV through programming that includes awareness campaigns, online mobilisation, training, and webinars.

Becoming part of the solution

“Become change agents,” Dr Nchabeleng urges. One way to start shifting attitudes and mindsets is to change the way we speak. Examples would be to refrain from sexist and discriminatory language and phrases that undermine and degrade our women. Gendered name-calling generally depicts women and girls as inferior and less than fully human. Another area of concern is the way young people — especially young men — engage in disparaging conversations about women on social media platforms. This behaviour needs to cease. As a society, we also need to stop victim blaming, stop normalising rape culture, and stop entertaining sexual violence jokes,” Dr Nchabeleng says.

These changes start with each of us.

Incidents of GBV and discrimination can be reported to GEADO at:
Bloemfontein Campus: +27 51 401 3982
South Campus: +27 51 401 7544
Qwaqwa Campus: +27 58 718 5431

Sexual Assault Response Team (SART):
www.ufs.ac.za/sart
Toll-free number +27 80 020 4682

News Archive

Four modernised controlled environment cabinets inaugurated

2006-07-27

Photographed in a controlled environment cabinet were at the back from the left: Mr Adriaan Hugo (head of the UFS Electronics and Mechanisation Division), Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS) and Prof Koos Terblans (lecturer at the UFS Department of Physics). In front is Mr Koos Uys (engineering consultant from Experto Designa who helped with the cooling systems of the cabinets).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

Different look for research in controlled circumstances at the UFS

Research in controlled circumstances at the University of the Free State (UFS) turned a new page today with the inauguration of four modernised controlled environment cabinets of the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences.

“The controlled environment cabinets, which are situated next to the glass houses on the eastern side of the Agriculture Building on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein, were installed in the early 1980’s. The cabinets, used for research purposes in controlled circumstances by the UFS for many years, became dysfunctional and needed to be repaired and put into use again,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS.

“The cabinets are used by the agronomics, horticulture and soil science divisions of the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences to control factors such as the temperature, the intensity and quality of light, synthesis and humidity. This is done 24 hours a day, with hourly intervals,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

The cabinets are ideally suited to determine the joint and separate effects of these factors on the growth of plants. The adaptability of plants to climate can also be investigated under controlled circumstances. All of this leads to a better understanding of the growth and development process of plants, more specifically that of agricultural crops.

“The effect of these environmental factors on the effectiveness of insect killers such as fungus killers, insecticide and weed killers can also be investigated and can help to explain the damage that is sometimes experienced, or even prevent the damage if the research is timeously,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

A new cabinet can cost between R2-3 million, depending on the degree of sophistication. “Although controlled environment cabinets have been used for agricultural research for a long time, it has become costly to maintain them and even more impossible to purchase new ones,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

According to Prof Van Schalkwyk the cabinets were re-built by die UFS Electronics and Mechanisation Division. Some of the mechanisms were also replaced and computerised.

“The re-building and mechanisation of the cabinets were funded by the faculty and because the work was done by our own staff, an amount of about R1 million was saved. The maintenance costs will now be lower as the cabinets are specifically tailor made for our research needs,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

Where all monitoring was done manually in the past, the cabinets can now be controlled with a computer. This programme was designed by Prof Koos Terblans from the UFS Department of Physics.

According to Prof Van Schalkwyk the modernisation of the cabinets is part of the faculty’s larger strategy to get its instruments and apparatus up to world standards. “With this project we have proved that we can find a solution for a problem ourselves and that there are ways to get old apparatus functional again,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

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

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