The deaths of Nosicelo Mtebeni, Uyinene Mrwetyana and too many other young women are brutal reminders of the struggle we are waging to free our society, including the higher education sector, of violence in general, and gender-based violence in particular.

We need your help to prevent violence and lasting trauma faced by survivors and to ensure justice is served.

Please join us on Friday, 27 August 2021as we release a set of instruments that will help turn the sectoral GBV Policy Framework (launched by Minister Blade Nzimande in July 2020) into action:

Implementation Procedural Guidelines on Sexual and Gender Related Misconduct in Post-School Education and Training (PSET) Institutions

Implementation Protocol on Rape and Sexual Assault Cases

Implementation Protocol on the PSET Code of Ethics

These instruments are directives to all our institutions and management to operationalise necessary infrastructure for a comprehensive response to cases of sexual and gender misconduct, rape, sexual assaults across all our campuses.

Working with judicial and police services, the implementation guidelines and protocols on rape and a code of ethics will ensure the reporting of cases, disciplinary systems, safeguarding evidence, provision of rape kits, psychosocial support services and survivor-friendly infrastructure are rolled out across our sector.

The three instruments were developed by the PSET Gender Based Violence Technical Task Team which is led by HIGHER HEALTH and comprises student leadership, vice chancellors of 26 public universities, rectors of 50 TVET colleges, the Commission for Gender Equality, Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, South African Police Service, Department of Justice, United Nations (UNWOMEN and UNFPA), civil society, the SA Medical Research Council and executive leadership from the Department of Higher Education and Training.

The webinar programme will feature these speakers:

Mr Buti Manamela – Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Prof Puleng LenkaBula – Chairperson of the HIGHER HEALTH GBV Technical Task Team and VC of UNISA, Professor Dipiloane Phutsisi – Deputy President of SACPO, Ms Tamara Mathebula – Chairperson of Commission for Gender Equality, Ms Anne Githuku-Shongwe – UNWOMEN, student leadership, and Prof Ramneek Ahluwalia, the CEO of HIGHER HEALTH

Source: Government of South Africa