Sexual Violence in Institutions of Higher Learning in South Africa

Palesa Lebitse

doi:10.25159/2520-9515/20649

Authors

Palesa Lebitse

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-9515/20649

Keywords:

sexual violence, sexual harassment, higher learning, human rights, human dignity, Constitution

Abstract

In South Africa, labour laws are in place to enact sexual harassment regulations that aim to protect the labour force from sexual harassment and its effects. However, the literature indicates that several factors indicate that sexual harassment or sexual violence at institutions of higher learning, affecting students, differs from the sexual harassment in the workplace. Understanding the act of sexual harassment, the matters of consent, acquaintance rape, reporting and vulnerability due to age are just some of the factors at play in this complex area. There is, however, a lack of substantive research on the prevalence and effect of sexual harassment in non-traditional institutions of higher learning, such as TVHET (formerly FET) colleges, where most previously disadvantaged students pursue their higher education. Whether such institutions have policies in place regarding sexual harassment or sexual violence is largely unknown. This article indicates that even where such policies exist, sexual violence continues. The article explores the responses of these institutions and the national government to sexual violence on campuses being traditionally guided solely by inadequate policies, lacking the potential to deal effectively with this phenomenon. This article then invokes the fundamental rights and values enshrined in the South African Constitution to indicate that the unabated continuance of sexual harassment on these campuses is a failure of the effective accountability of the national government. This is interpreted as the government not exercising its positive duty to enact legislation that protects the human rights and dignity of the victims of such deeds, who are mainly women drawn from the ranks of the previously disadvantaged. This paper argues that the absence of statutory regulation of sexual violence in higher education constitutes a constitutional failure of state accountability. The methodology undertaken for this paper is desktop research and document analysis.

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