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10 June 2019 | Story Lacea Loader

The executive committee of the University of the Free State (UFS) has today resumed the training of its undergraduate students in the School of Clinical Medicine at the Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein with immediate effect.

The decision to suspend the training of undergraduate students at the hospital came after the attempted rape of a medical intern last week, as well as the robbery of a medical officer in the parking area of the hospital over the weekend.

This morning, discussions involving the university management, the Head of the Department of Health (DoH) in the Free State Province, the executive committee of the Pelonomi Hospital, and the South African Police Service (SAPS) took place regarding the security situation at the hospital. The DoH provided the university with a security project plan comprising immediate and medium-term interventions, and a commitment to execute the plan as a matter of urgency. The university’s executive management furthermore met with the management of the Faculty of Health Sciences and, based on a safety risk assessment, the university’s executive management agreed that undergraduate students could again fully access the clinical platform at Pelonomi Hospital.

Interventions in the security project plan include the installation of high-mast lights in the precinct of the hospital, reparation of the perimeter fence, security locks, and limiting access to the hospital and the hospital grounds after 20:00 until 06:00. A Venue Operation Centre (VOC) made up of SAPS, institutional security management, and the Community Policing Forum will also be established at the hospital.

“The main focus and concern for the executive management of the university is the safety of its students and staff. We are satisfied with the security plan and the overall interventions committed to by the DoH and will monitor the implementation of these interventions with the management of the Pelonomi Hospital and the DoH. The security interventions will alleviate the situation at the hospital in order for the university to continue sending its undergraduate students there for training,” said Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, during a media briefing today.

Prof Petersen also met with undergraduate students in the Schools of Clinical Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health Professions today to discuss the situation at the hospital. Trauma counselling is provided to undergraduate students and staff and those in need of counselling at the Pelonomi Hospital.

The DoH has furthermore extended its bus service between the clinical platforms in Bloemfontein to students in need of transport of the School of Clinical Medicine according to time slots as from the beginning of the second semester. This service will ultimately be extended to undergraduate students in the Schools of Nursing and Allied Health Professions. “We will also look into further transport solutions for the longer term for our students,” said Prof Petersen.

Undergraduate students from the university’s Schools of Clinical Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health Professions are trained on the clinical platforms in Bloemfontein – these include the Pelonomi Hospital, Universitas Hospital, National Hospital, the Mangaung University Community Partnership Programme (MUCPP), and the Free State Psychiatric Complex.

Although these clinical training platforms are under the jurisdiction of the DoH in the Free State Province, they form a critical part of the training of undergraduate students in the university’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Staff on the joint establishment of the UFS and the DoH also work at hospitals on the clinical platforms.

Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Department of Communication and Marketing)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za


News Archive

Professor Antjie Krog to deliver public lecture at UFS Bloemfontein Campus
2015-06-19

Professor Antjie Krog – illustrious author, poet, and academic – will deliver a public lecture at the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Bloemfontein Campus. The topic of her discussion will be ‘They Couldn’t Achieve their Goal with Me: Narrating Rape during the South African War’.

Prof Krog’s lecture will be the third instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series on Trauma, Memory and Representations of the Past. The lecture series is hosted by Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at the UFS, as part of a five-year research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Details of the event:

Date: Tuesday 23 June 2015
Time: 12:00
Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, UFS Bloemfontein Campus
Members of the public are welcome to attend
RSVP to Jo-Anne Naidoo: NaidooJA@ufs.ac.za

Acts of rape during South African War

To set the context of her lecture, Prof Krog explains that, about two months before the South African War officially ended on 31 May 1902, affidavits were taken from women about transgressions experienced at the hands of British soldiers. These acts included plunder, killing of stock, abduction, sexual assault, and rape. Her lecture is the first scholarly focus in terms of narrative and agency on the affidavits of 24 incidents of sexual assaults and rape since the 25-year embargo on these documents was lifted in 1982. The shelving of these affidavits is indicative of how even transcultural multiple processes failed to create an honest discourse in post-colonial South Africa about sexual violence.

Paving the way to healing historical wounds

The series focuses on the portrayal of trauma and memory in multiple ways – such as the narrative arts represented by Prof Krog. These forms of expression may ultimately pave the way to healing historical wounds.

“This topic is very timely, given a recent NRF grant we’ve been awarded for research on transgenerational trauma related to the South African war,” Prof Gobodo-Madikizela says in anticipation of the lecture.

Previous instalments of Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series

The first instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series on Trauma, Memory and Representations of the Past was delivered by former Constitutional Court Judge, Albie Sachs, in which he discussed ‘Sites of memory, sites of conscience’. Internationally acclaimed composer and sound artist, Philip Miller, delivered the second lecture, ‘Disrupting the Silence: The Past and Transnational Memory’.


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