In a proactive move to enhance student safety, the Campus Community Safety Forum has been launched to bridge the gap between law enforcement and students, addressing rising security concerns on and off campus. 

On Tuesday, the Police Ministry, South African Police Service (SAPS) management, and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) led the launch at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Westville Campus.

SAPS social crime prevention head Major-General Thokozani Mathonsi said the programme is designed to ensure police are proactive in responding to crime and security challenges at the university. 

“One of the things that we are currently doing is to finalise a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) through the Department of Higher Education and Training, which will then allow us to work better with universities,” Mathonsi said. 

The programme has been deployed at several universities.  

Mathonsi noted that incidents at universities, ranging from assault to murder, occur both on and off campus. These crimes are often influenced by universities being located in high-crime areas.

Mathonsi said they did not want universities to become hiding places for criminals.

“Our intervention is basically to make sure that the students are a part of the process to ensure their safety, but also to make sure that our local police stations have a better response in case there are certain challenges that are happening at the university,” Mathonsi said.  

“As a result of that, we have appointed campus liaison officers from local police stations where the universities are situated across the country. If there is dissatisfaction about any process from the police station, there will be a contact person that the university will be able to liaise with to report any challenges and find solutions going forward. 

“One of the things we want to achieve through this process is that we don’t necessarily come to the university because there are problems, but we must be part of the university so that we can do the threat assessment, the risk assessment, and be able to develop our response strategies long in advance before problems arise,” Mathonsi continued. 

UKZN Student Representative Council president Siyabonga Mlondo said the campus safety forum is something they have been calling for because it closes the gap between the police, students, and management, particularly the Risk Management Services (RMS), the university’s safety unit.  

“We’ve been having issues with a barrier between students and the police. This forum will also bring SAPS closer to the campuses and facilitate reports that engage various stakeholders. Each stakeholder reports to the forum. The forum then has a tangible and effective report that can be used by the intelligence of the university and including SAPS, to challenge various issues internally,” Mlondo said. 

He highlighted security concerns, including student muggings both on and off campus. Additionally, some private accommodations face issues such as muggings and other security concerns.

“Internally, we’ve been trying to mitigate the crime because we’ve been having regular meetings with RMS, but this forum will then close that gap,” Mlondo said. 

Student Ayabonga Nzama, a former campus residence occupant, said they had issues with residents from a nearby informal settlement, who would enter the campus, posing a safety risk to students, especially since the residence was all-female. 

“This is very important to also ensure our safety on campus, because we have been having issues of safety on campus, whereby students have been getting mugged, using cars, also using weapons, and mostly it is by the people from the place that I mentioned, and then sometimes it is also with vehicles. So I think such an initiative will have a positive impact, and it will be very helpful in also ensuring our safety as students,” Nzama said. 

Another student, Thobeka Njapha, said: “It’s very important to make sure that students feel seen and that they feel the initiatives here at university create a safe space for them to go to and just express the issues that they’re facing.”

She said she lives off campus in an area that has become dangerous. “The university does prioritise our safety, because this is our home away from home,” Njapha said. 

thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za 

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