SA’s universities facing sexual assault crisis

Higher education institutions lack the relevant structures to address gender-based violence and sexual assault among students and, instead, focus on “bread-and-butter” issues such as providing free education and accommodation.

Higher Education Minister Naledi Pandor has released the policy framework draft intended to address gender-based violence in the post-school education and training system. This follows a scourge of violence and sexual assault in institutions of higher learning.

The purpose of the policy is to eradicate gender-based violence and help institutions in addressing the scourge, while encouraging them to provide a monitoring instrument to the department to assess the implementation of the policy framework.

In recent years, university students across the country have taken to the streets, some bare-chested , to raise awareness about violence against women.

Rhodes University students embarked on a protest last year after student Khensani Maseko committed suicide in August after she was allegedly raped by her boyfriend.

But there was no data documenting the extent of genderbased violence on campuses except for a few instances which focused on students’ experience of rape and sexual harassment, researcher and gender specialist Lisa Vetten told The Citizen.

“There isn’t enough data. Most information is outdated and dates back to 10 or more years ago,” she said. “There is only one recent study at Wits University. The difficulties that are faced by students at universities are not getting the attention they deserve.”

According to the draft report, a number of factors contributed to under-reporting by victims of violence, such as unclear reporting process due to vague policies, lack of knowledge about the existing policies, lack of trust in institutional structures, the fear of victimisation and the belief that ignoring it would cause it to stop.

The department of higher education expects institutions to develop policies which adhere to a zero tolerance to gender-based violence, multifaceted interventions to address such violence, comprising of prevention information, established structures, trust and empathy and support to complainants.

But universities lacked funding, Vetten said. “There should be special officers with investigators, counsellors and a director to do advocacy and training around the issue. At some universities, there is no funding.

“Things such as poverty have tended to be more important, such as problems around student accommodation or not enough money for fees. It is bread and butter issues that have pushed gender-based violence aside.”

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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