Sexual Violation in Institutions of Higher Learning in South Africa

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 there are a number of factors indicating that sexual harassment (or sexual violence) at institutions of higher learning, as it affects students, differs greatly from the sexual harassment found 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 the majority of 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 will indicate that even where such policies exist, sexual violence continues. It does so by exploring the responses of these institutions and the national government to sexual violence on campus, which has traditionally been guided solely by policies that have been found to be inadequate, lacking the potential to deal effectively with this phenomenon. It then invokes the fundamental rights and values enshrined in the South African Constitution to indicate that the unabated continuance of sexual harassment (sexual violence) on the campuses of such institutions of higher learning is a failure of the national government to act accountably. 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.