If you happened to be around the UCT protest movement over the course of #FeesMustFall you would have been astonishingly aware of the impressive amount of dialogue that went down among the students. As large crowds gathered peacefully, the mic was offered to anyone who wanted to voice their opinions and open up a section of dialogue that might have been missed. While #RhodesMustFall began as a predominantly black people movement in the beginning of the year, #FeesMustFall advanced to incorporate all students and even workers, moving the dialogue from “us” to “all”.

Yet, while students and workers stood together over concerns of certain policies of UCT, there were some that were forgotten.

After the rape of a fellow activist at Azania, it seems that the reaction and policies of UCT as an institution is something that unfortunately requires further discussion.

Dela Gwala and Priyanka Naidoo – members of the #PatriarchyMustFall movement – penned an opinion piece for the Cape Times on the issue of rape at UCT and how it is dealt with:

Dela Gwala (@indie1activist) tweeted: “UCT never condemns the constant acts of sexual violence that happen here. If they speak now we will know why.”

Three days ago, #RapeAtAzania was trending nationally on Twitter and if there is anything that pushes UCT management to take a stance on any issue, it’s bad PR.

Survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment started tweeting their experiences of sidelining and silencing at the institution unfiltered. One survivor spoke of having to take a leave of absence in order to not encounter her rapist on campus grounds daily.

Unfortunately, one of the “protections” UCT has in its policy is that you can go, but the rapist gets to stay.

Others have tweeted about the serial offenders and cases that have recently come to light at UCT. One of the students spoke of the case of a pastor, who runs a Christian organisation on campus, who has been reported for sexually assaulting nine female students. Several years ago, the pastor in question had been reported by three students for sexual harassment and had been subsequently banned from campus.

Last month, about a 100 students protested on Hiddingh Campus against the lukewarm institutional response from UCT when these cases are brought forward. The students raised their voices and placards after a first-year student had been sexually assaulted by a male student in a bathroom. The perpetrator is a known serial offender with numerous complaints already lodged against him.

This seems to be an alarmingly common trend at UCT. A blog called UCTSurvivors details a few stories brought forward by survivors, of reporting their perpetrator and then finding out that this person has been reported multiple times – yet hasn’t been disciplined.

Survivors also detail their decision not to move forward with the charges due to lack of faith in the systems and structures in place, and the knowledge that the university really doesn’t do much to protect them from retaliation from the perpetrator.

The office that deals with these cases, The Discrimination and Harassment Office, is understaffed, under-resourced, ineffective and currently under review.

Because of UCT’s poor approach to dealing with the rape culture that exists on its campus, the PatriarchyMustFall movement exists. It has provided a space for womxn* to tell their stories and how it feels to inhabit a space where some male students sing about raping women until they are dead. There’s degradation, misogynistic name-calling and lack of respect at events and in dining halls. While standing up for these basic rights outside the male residence Leo Marquard Hall, the activists had eggs thrown at them.

Although there are fundamental issues with the way the rape at Azania was handled in terms of sharing the perpetrators picture around on social media, this is what the representatives of PartiarchyMustFall had to say about the issue:

There’s immense power in the fact that one of our members came up with the hashtag #RapeAtAzania. We were cautioned by many people about circulating the picture of the perpetrator. However, many people don’t realise that this is a silencing mechanism and plays directly into rape culture. We took the decision not to sugarcoat what happened by using words like “allegedly”. “Alleged” is a manifestation of the pervasive culture where occurrences of rape are never believed, because womxn are “overly sensitive liars”. There exists a victim-blaming mentality in the subtext of “alleged”, forcing the survivor to go to great lengths to prove that it was “REALLY” rape.

Azania House was meant to be a safe space for all black bodies on campus who are constantly confronted by the institutionalised racism and structural oppression of UCT. It is thus painfully ironic that this happened here.

As Dela Gwala (@indie1activist) said on Twitter: “We are done with ‘liberation spaces’ where we are told to swallow violence for the sake of unity. The patriarchy will fall NOW #RapeAtAzania”

As the conversations during the #FeesMustFall protests focused on issue of race and class instead of the issues of hyper-masculinity and patriarchy, it has become overtly clear that race, class and gender are very much intersectional, especially in the South African context.

This means that these issues are interconnected and these discussions need to happen simultaneously. As #PatriarchyMustFall (@UCT_PMF) tweeted: “Why do student movements think it’s legitimate to outsource their intersectionality?” It has become clear that UCT does not prioritise gender-based violence and neither do liberation movements.

As #FeesMustFall did well in encouraging everyone to speak, it cannot just focus on one issue anymore. Everyone needs to know about everything as we are all a part of South Africa and transformation can only occur when we speak and move forward as one.

* Intentional spelling. “Womxn” is transgender, gender non-conforming and gender non-binary inclusive.

[source: iol]