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Protection Services enhances student safety

17 May 2023 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Charl Devenish

Shining the light on the darkness, which is crime.

The University of the Free State (UFS) Department of Protection Services works around the clock to safeguard students in order to reduce risks of crime on and around the three UFS campuses. On 12 May 2023, the South African Police Service (SAPS), the Brandwag Sector Community Policing Forum (CPF), and Protection Services organised a safety awareness campaign from 19:00 to 21:00, which is the peak period for crime incidences in the neighbourhood.

“Continuous awareness to enhance student safety in the Brandwag area highlights the commitment of the UFS, SAPS, and the community through the CPF structure towards student safety,” said Jacobus van Jaarsveld, Deputy Director: Threat Detection, Investigations, Compliance and Liaison in Protection Services.

Mitigating risks and maximising safety

Students and staff are the most valuable assets of the UFS. Protection Services has various initiatives and a dedicated team that ensures the physical safety of all who study and work at the institution. The safety, health, and well-being of the university community remains the university’s priority. Off-campus safety and security are at the top of the list, hence Protection Services, in collaboration with external stakeholders, remains steadfast in its attempts to create a safe environment.

Continuous awareness campaigns

On 16 May 2023, Protection Services continued to spread safety awareness in the Universitas neighbourhood (with the assistance of students), where many UFS students live – first in Badenhorst Street and then in Stofberg Street. Throughout the year, these patrols and awareness initiatives will continue, expanding to the South and Qwaqwa campuses.

The UFS value framework includes compassion as a core virtue. As a result, we as a university take pleasure in our dedication to fostering environments that are not only favourable for excellent teaching, learning, and scholarship, but also emphasise the well-being and happiness of the campus community. Vision 130, an expansion of the strategic purpose to reposition the institution for 2034 when the university will celebrate its 130th anniversary, demonstrates our value of care.

Contact details:

If you need any assistance, call Protection Services on its toll-free number 0800 204 682, which is available 24/7.

Off-campus security liaison vehicle spotted in the safety convoy

Off-campus security liaison vehicle spotted in the safety convoy

The SAPS Visible Policing Unit present to raise awareness about safety

The SAPS Visible Policing Unit present to raise awareness about safety

Present in the fight to build safer neighbourhoods was the Sector 2 CPF

Present in the fight to build safer neighbourhoods was the Sector 2 CPF

Students living off campus engaged with the team during the anti-crime drive

UFS Protection Services together in arms with the SAPS and members of the CPF

Ensuring that students who live off campus remain a priority

Keeping the neighbourhood safe and secure is of the utmost importance

Keeping the neighbourhood safe and secure is of the utmost importance

Targeting crime hotspots and conducting a needs analysis of the students living in those areas to ensure their well-being

Working around the clock to serve and protect the lives of students living off campus

Promoting a crime-free off-campus environment

News Archive

Game farming a lens to analyse challenges facing democratic SA – Dr Kamuti

2017-05-30

Dr Tariro Kamuti, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre
for Africa Studies at the University of the Free State.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin

One of the challenges facing South Africa’s developing game farming policy is the fractured state in the governance of the private game farming sector, says Dr Tariro Kamuti.

Dr Kamuti, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) at the University of the Free State (UFS), was presenting a seminar on Wednesday 17 May 2017 under the topic, Private Wildlife Governance in a Context of Radical Uncertainty: Challenges of South Africa’s Developing Game Farming Policy, which takes material from his PhD. He received his PhD from both the Vrije University in Amsterdam and the UFS in 2016.

His presentation explored how the private game industry positions itself in accordance with existing agricultural and environmental regulations. It also investigated the state’s response to the challenge of competing needs over land and wildlife resources which is posed by the gaming sector. “The transformation of the institutional processes mediating governance of the private game farming sector has been a long and enduring arrangement emerging organically over time,” Dr Kamuti said.

Game farming links wildlife and agricultural sectors
“I decided on this topic to highlight that game farming links the wildlife sector (associated with conservation and tourism) and the agricultural sector. Both make use of land whose resources need to be sustainably utilised to meet a broad spectrum of needs for the diverse South African population.

“The continuous skewed ownership of land post-1994 justifies questioning of the role of the state in confronting challenges of social justice and transformation within the economy.”

“Game farming can thus be viewed as a lens through which to study the broad challenges facing a democratic South Africa, and to interrogate the regulatory and policy framework in the agricultural and wildlife sectors at their interface,” Dr Kamuti said.

Challenges facing game farming policies
The state alone does not apply itself to the regulation of private gaming as a sector. “There is no clear direction on the position of private game farming at the interface of environmental and agricultural regulations, hence game farmers take advantage of loopholes in these institutional arrangements to forge ahead,” Dr Kamuti said.

He further went on to say that the state lacked a coherent plan for the South African countryside, “as shown by the outstanding land restitution and labour tenant claims on privately owned land earmarked for wildlife production”.

The South African government was confronted with a context in which the status quo of the prosperity of the middle classes under neoliberal policies was pitted against the urgent need to improve the material well-being of the majority poor. Unless such issues were addressed, this necessarily undermined democracy as a participatory social force, Dr Kamuti said.

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