Harassment, bullying and stalking clarified

MBOMBELA – The Protection from Harassment Act has as it’s purpose to address harassment with a court order in terms of which the harasser is prohibited from continuing to harass the victim.

Herewith the definitions of harassment, stalking and bullying to clarify:

Harassment as defined by Professor Alan Rycroft from the University of Cape Town’s law faculty: “it is any persistent and unwelcome conduct which is hostile or offensive to a reasonable person and induces a fear of harm and demeans, humiliates or creates a hostile and or intimidating environment or is calculated to induce submission by actual or threatened adverse consequences.”

Stalking is defined as “any type of harassing and intimidating conduct that causes a person to fear for his or her safety” and involves “a series of discrete, individual acts, each one building upon the next” over a period of time, and can “escalate from what may initially be annoying, alarming but lawful behaviour to the level of dangerous, violent and potentially fatal acts. Stalking may therefore be a precursor to crimes such as assault, wounding, criminal intimidation, sexual offences and even murder” by the South African Law Reform Commission (2003)

Bullying is “aggressive physical contact, words or actions to cause another person injury or discomfort” Bullying is characterized by the repeated intimidation or abuse of the victim, either for the bully’s personal fulfillment or for the amusement of onlookers. Traditionally, bullying involved the use of force, superior strength, influence or coercion, but with the proliferation of mobile communication devices and internet use, bullying is increasingly being carried out through the use of electronic communication and information technologies, according to the American Psychological Association.