Gender-based violence probe ends in expulsions

Rhodes sends 3 students packing in rape crackdown

RHODES University’s war on gender-based violence has resulted in the permanent expulsion of two male students and a 10-year expulsion for another this year alone.

The university has come under fire for what many students have termed the rape culture at the institution where gender violence is all too common.

The university is so determined to see justice done that it recently fought three high court urgent applications brought by one of the students attempting to stop the rape disciplinary proceedings at various stages from going ahead.

Court papers reveal a disciplinary panel found, on a balance of probabilities, that a third-year student raped a female student in his residence room in April.

He subsequently failed in three separate high court bids to respectively overturn the university disciplinary finding that he had sexually assaulted her. He also failed to overturn his suspension from the university pending a sanction hearing and to stop the sanction hearing pending an application to appeal the outcome of the first application.

The student was subsequently one of the men permanently excluded from the institution.

Victims of sexual assault may opt not to pursue criminal proceedings, which are often more traumatic.

Rhodes vice-chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela yesterday said the university was determined to eradicate all forms of gender-based violence within the institution and to contribute to efforts in dealing with the scourge in society generally.

But Mabizela said the university would also not tolerate unlawful actions during protest which compromised the rights of others.

He welcomed this week’s Constitutional Court judgment which upheld an interdict prohibiting three female students from kidnapping, assaulting, threatening or intimidating any within the university community.

Sian Ferguson, Yolanda Dyantyi and Simamkele Heleni approached the Constitutional Court following two unsuccessful attempts at the high court and Supreme Court of Appeal where they sought to appeal against the interdict.

The interdict followed their participation in protests against genderbased violence during which the court found protesters had “made serious inroads into the rights and liberties of others”.

Mabizela said the university would protect everyone’s right to protest.

“What we cannot protect and what the law does not protect, however, is unlawful conduct and the undermining of the rights and liberties of others. It is extremely unfortunate when illegality is committed in the name of a necessary and important campaign against gender-based violence,” he said.