The University of Fort Hare has seen an increase in reports of gender-based violence, vice-chancellor Sakhela Buhlungu said.
This was revealed during a dialogue on “Sexual consent: Myths, facts, and realities” held on the Dikeni campus on Thursday.
The event drew students from both East London and Dikeni campuses and challenged societal norms.
Buhlungu said he’d had to deal with countless cases coming into his office.
“With issues of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment there are structures to process those people.
“The final appeal of those cases comes to me.
“I look at them and I get all kinds of excuses of people ducking and diving.
“All I ask is, was there consent? Is this person not intelligent enough to understand what consent is?
“A staff member or student should be able to understand what it is.”
At the heart of consent was the issue of power.
“Sometimes the denial seems rather timid, and because one has the power they think they have consent.”
Buhlungu said power had the ability to get people to agree to do things.
“The issue of consent can also be an indication of abuse of power.”
The university had a gender-based violence unit that had trained staff to take care of students who reported to his office.
It dealt with cases including rape, sexual assault and abuse of power.
“We have staff with the skills who were appropriately selected and have the passion to deal with these issues.”
He said the fact that cases were being reported was a good sign, but it was also worrisome as it meant GBV was happening.
Dr Sheena Swemmer, head of gender justice at Wits University’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies, said numerous factors contributed to sexual assault cases which made them difficult to pin down.
“There is a threshold to to be reached in terms of not proving consent which means the state puts the victim on the stand to give evidence of how much she resisted.
“Sometimes these cases are mismanaged before they get to court, in that they don’t have evidence or there hasn’t been proper consultation with the victim beforehand.”
Swemmer said prosecution rates in cases of this kind were “terrible”.
Philosopher Dr Lindsay Kelland, from Rhodes University’s Allan Gray Centre of Leadership Ethics, said the increase of GBV reports indicated two things: either there were more cases of GBV or people were more aware of their rights.
“This could indicate that the students do feel more heard, that there are more support structures.
“There is a safe space where people can go and report and speak up.”
But there were still problems.
“Young girls are taught to be submissive and young boys are taught to be dominant, and we find behaviours of this kind emerging.
“We are failing from a very basic foundation and the ways we think which need to shift.”
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