Rhodes University accused of excluding rape activists
Feminist activists on campus claim they have been made to sign a document preventing them from protesting.
Khensani Maseko, the Rhodes University student and rape victim who died in apparent suicide. Picture: Twitter.
At a “Buang Basadi” women’s dialogue session held by the EFF at Johannesburg’s Constitution Hill, it was claimed by Rhodes University gender activists that the university has made students sign a document preventing them from protesting.
It was further alleged that some students have been excluded from the University for highlighting “rape culture on campus.”
At the event, it was also mentioned that there has been alleged sexual misconduct and rape within the Fees Must Fall movement.
#EFFBuangBasadi Botha: It is sad that students during the #FeesMustFall movement were raped and violated by some students themselves.
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) August 25, 2018
The event, moderated by journalist Phindile Xaba, is a dialogue session in which issues “patriarchy, gender based violence and femicide” will be discussed, according to the party’s official Twitter account.
One of the speakers, Soul City executive director Lebogang Ramafoko, expressed her view that women were not liberated at the end of apartheid.
“Having worked in social justice for the past 25 years, I can say that 1994 has not happened for South African womens,” she said.
#EFFBuangBasadi Nyalu: Women at Rhodes can’t speak out anymore because we have been made to sign a document that says we cannot protest on campus, now students are afraid. pic.twitter.com/7WgVbeyf2C
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) August 25, 2018
#EFFBuangBasadi Nyalu: Rhodes has gone to exclude students because they raised the issue of rape culture on campus but the perpetrators are still allowed to be in. I would like for the EFF leadership to support the students who are engaged in the Rhodes War. pic.twitter.com/f8fzPYEu1k
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) August 25, 2018
#EFFBuangBasadi Khumo: It’s sad that the women’s voice is barely heard and we must create special events for women to come together to vent. We walk around on campus with these rapists, I feel like there is nothing. pic.twitter.com/O2SLtqK6zO
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) August 25, 2018
Earlier in August Khensani Maseko, a student and EFF member from Rhodes University who was allegedly raped by her then boyfriend in May, died at her family home in Johannesburg on Friday afternoon in an apparent suicide.
The Rhodes University SRC expressed their shock, while on social media tributes poured in, with many spreading the hashtag #RIPKhensani and voicing their outrage at Maseko’s suicide and at South African rape culture in general.
Maseko was an SRC alumnus, active in campus politics.
Nhlakanipho Mahlangu, a member of Rhodes SRC, said: “We know the amount of promise she had to offer us all, I mean to offer the entire country. We’re very shaken, it’s a very difficult time for us as the SRC, and we wish her family all the strength and support that we can.”
