AfriForum Youth demands answers after campus security allows threats to students
3 October 2023
AfriForum Youth has today sent a formal application in terms of the Act on the Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) to the University of Pretoria (UP), Stellenbosch University (SU), the North-West University (NWU) and the University of the Free State (UFS). This application requests that these universities, where most of AfriForum Youth’s members are enrolled, disclose information to the youth organisation about their campus security’s mandate. The big question is: Is the campus security’s mandate to protect the university’s property, or to protect the students?
It is of crucial importance for AfriForum Youth to determine whether the security companies that universities use on campus have the mandate to protect students. “Students and their parents have the right to know if, and how, their safety is ensured on campus,” says René van der Vyver, spokesperson for AfriForum Youth. The youth organisation requests in the PAIA application, among other things, a copy of the contract concluded between the universities and the security companies, as well as a record of correspondence in which the primary objectives of the companies are stipulated – in particular key performance indicators regarding the protection of the university infrastructure and assets versus the protection of students.
The recent incidents of violence and intimidation at the UP compelled the youth organisation to demand this information from universities. AfriForum Youth raised their concerns earlier about footage showing how members of the EFF prevented students from entering the campus and on the video the viewers can see how the security officers just stand by and watch as this happens.
“AfriForum Youth is keeping up the pressure to demand that the EFFSC UP be deregistered as a student association and encourages everyone to support the petition on AfriForum Youth’s website. Furthermore, the public has the right to know how the safety of students on university campuses is ensured and therefore we are anxiously awaiting the answers to the questions in our PAIA application,” concludes Van der Vyver.
Issued by René van der Vyver, AfriForum Youth: Spokesperson, 3 October 2023
