Rape allegations rock University of Cape Town SRC

The University of Cape Town student representatives’ council (SRC) has suspended its members accused of rape.

In a statement the SRC said that in a time where gender-based violence was a scourge in the country, the student body sought to never be oblivious to the issues that affect women.

“Some members of the SRC were alerted to an allegation by a UCT student that they were raped and sexually harassed by two of the SRC members (one an EFF Student Command and one a PASMA member).

“On the 5th of July 2017, the SRC sat for its weekly standing meeting in which it decided unanimously among other things to suspend two of its members from office with immediate effect pending investigations,” the SRC said.

It also named the two students in its statement, something the university has condemned.

“The two members involved are [redacted], who is alleged to have raped the student, and [redacted], who is alleged to have sexually harassed the student,” the statement read.

UCT PASMA welcomed the suspension of one of its members from the student body.

“The PASMA SRC caucus engaged comrade [redacted] on the allegations. Both him and the student agree on the facts of the incident. The student alleges that they were drinking at one of the popular drinking joints in Rondebosch and they both agreed to go and have consented [sic] sex in comrade his room [sic] in Liesbeek.

“The story is relayed as follows; at Liesbeek they first had a smoke and it was after the smoking that the student said that they no longer wanted to have sex. It is then alleged that comrade [redacted] was unhappy about this decision and did not talk to the student for the rest of the night and turned his back on her while they continued to sleep in the same bed,” the student movement said.

The university said it was aware of the matter but raised concerns over publicly naming alleged perpetrators.

“We are concerned over the public naming of alleged perpetrators in a public statement. We urge anyone with information about the alleged incident to report to the Campus Protection Services. We believe it is not appropriate to publicly name alleged perpetrators,” said UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola.

He said alleged perpetrators were innocent until proven guilty in a court of law or through a disciplinary process.

“UCT is pursuing this matter urgently and we appeal to all to allow the legal processes to follow due course.”

Earlier this week, The Sowetan reported that the EFFSC at Wits University accused one of its members from the University of Johannesburg of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

The member allegedly abused several female students. However, no case has been opened against him.