Investigating the safety and security of the open campus using community-based facilities management and technological innovation principles: University of Cape Town

Abstract

Safety and security is a major issue affecting South Africa, especially within the context of Cape Town as it is one of South Africa’s most crime ridden metropolitans. The University of Cape Town (UCT) as a large open campus located in Rondebosch has also fallen victim to increasing levels of crime. The provision of safety and security is largely the responsibility of an organization’s facilities management services. Therefore, the study was undertaken to determine whether the University has implemented the Community-based Facilities Management (CbFM) principle of community participation to better understand and manage the needs of the community regarding issues of safety and security. The study was initiated with an investigation into the literature relevant to the research. This is followed by the research methodology which employed a mixed method approach and utilised both an online survey of the university community and semi-structured interviews with university executive management to obtain data from the single case study of UCT. The findings are then presented and establish an overall view of the provision of safety and security at UCT, the unique challenges management faces in doing so and the main safety and security issues affecting the community. The findings of study reveal that UCT has implemented community participation processes in the past with limited success. The processes implemented constitute a narrow perspective of community participation and a much smarter and inclusive perspective by using technological innovation is required in order for successful community participation to occur and to be successfully utilised in the provision of safety and security.