The University of Cape Town is in the news again. This time a lecturer in UCT’s department of chemical engineering, Arthur Mabentsela, took to Facebook to post some criminally disturbing and borderline violent content.

Mabentsela, who graduated with a masters in engineering from Stellenbosch, has been a lecturer in the department of chemical engineering since 2015.

The Citizen reports that over the weekend Mabentsela wrote on Facebook that:

“when I was depressed I had thoughts of raping my own 2 year old. I wanted to kill her. I saw nothing in her. There was no love.”

You can see the post here, in response to a woman defending #MenAreTrash. Mabentsela appears to use depression (something that affects many people, and is not a cause of violent behaviour) as an excuse for inexcusable criminal behaviour towards women.

According to the university’s spokesperson, Gerda Kruger:

“The content of the post is grave, unacceptable and disturbing, and completely out of alignment with UCT values. It is completely understandable that the post has upset people, leading to reactions of pain and offence. This is most regrettable.”

It isn’t the first time that Mabentsela has posted sexist commentary online. Here’s another post from Facebook:

In the post he:

…advised women to, among other things, stop calling men trash because they weren’t able to attract a “quality man”.

He alleged that women shouldn’t have ignored nerds at school and suggested that they were too promiscuous.

“Close your legs and open your ears,” was one choice piece of advice, to which he added: “Listen when a real man talks. But just check all the hoes gonna jump and defend their trash ways.”

He clearly has some equally disgusting supporters, judging by the 10 likes and laughing emojis that he got in response to this.

In other posts he has revealed himself to be borderline racist towards Asian people, stating that he found living with people who have “Asian characteristics”, “worrying”.

These posts were brought to the attention of the University of Cape Town on Tuesday morning, and they have committed to taking action against the lecturer.

UCT said in a statement this afternoon that their executive had already met with their staff member, Arthur Mabentsela – though they did not name him – and a “formal pre-suspension hearing has been called and a formal process to investigate the matter has begun”, according to the university’s spokesperson, Gerda Kruger.

She added: “We have introduced due process to look into the matter and we will ensure the matter is properly investigated and dealt with.”

Pending investigation, the media, and the university are referring to Mabentsela’s ‘alleged actions’ rather than calling this what it is  – the ramblings of a disturbed mind.

This is certainly not someone who should have the power and influence that comes with a lecturing position.

Here’s hoping UCT does the right thing by removing him from campus, and that Mabentsela gets the professional help he so clearly needs.

[source:citizen]