In solidarity with our sister universities, Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC), as well as the affected victims and their families, we condemn the senseless stabbing of a female student, allegedly by her husband, who is a student at UWC.
This incident occurred on Saturday, 11 November 2023, in the full view of the public, but it was not a deterrent and shows how brazen the perpetrators of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) are in our country. This incident occurred despite UWC and CPUT taking a zero-tolerance stance on GBV.
We wish the student a speedy recovery from her injuries.
We condemn the acts of violence on our campuses and communities on the eve of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, a campaign to end violence against women and children.
Many students admitted to our universities are often from poor backgrounds and enter our institutions to educate and empower themselves for a better future, and to make their families proud.
We are appalled by the societal violence and its impact on our students, our academic and professional and support staff, our management and councils. These acts shame us and undermine all our efforts to create safe spaces for learning, teaching, research and innovation on our campuses.
The civic mission of universities requires them to contribute to positive social change, including stamping out GBV. Yet, GBV has become a major scourge in the sector despite policy interventions, advocacy work and training programmes.
As one of the greatest challenges in South Africa and higher education institutions, GBV requires a systematic, collective, and animating effort from all role-players – from the Ministry and university staff to students, parents and caregivers – to intervene in this ongoing crisis.
We urge the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation to strengthen his mission to rid the sector of all forms of violence at a time when universities are under much scrutiny in their governance and their handling of GBV on our troubled campuses.
We encourage all our sister institutions to reinforce our zero-tolerance stance to GBV, to use our research capacities to better understand the root causes of violent behaviour in our society, and to end the senseless and random loss of life on our campuses and communities.