AT the height of gender-based violence (GBV) cases, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande has urged tertiary institutions to be a step ahead in dealing with this issue.
The minister was speaking on Wednesday, 22 November during a media briefing in Tshwane.
“This kind of barbaric behaviour by males against women must be condemned and perpetrators must face the full might of the law. We cannot continue like this in our society, where as many as 38% of murders are committed against women, often by their intimate partners,” Nzimande said.
He urged both the government and the Post School Education and Training (PSET) system to intensify campaigns to confront and defeat the scourge of GBV in society.
“I launched the Transforming MENtalities initiative, which is a multi-stakeholder partnership within the PSET, with a particular focus on mobilising men in our sector to be part of championing a world free of gender biases, stereotypes, violence and discrimination,” Nzimande said.
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The minister's urgent need to address issues of GBV within higher education comes after a video of a university student stabbing his wife at a private student residence in Belhar, Cape Town circulated on social media.
The 26-year-old woman is a student at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), while her alleged attacker (30) is a University of Western Cape (UWC) student.
The minister further commended the arrest of a senior Fort Hare University employee for the alleged murder and attempted murder of employees at the university.
The accused, including nine men and a woman, appeared in the Alice Magistrates Court on Tuesday, 21 November facing charges of murder and attempted murder of Fort Hare fleet manager, Petrus Roets and Mboneli Vesele, who was the bodyguard to vice-chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu.
The case was postponed to 13 December 2023 for the finalisation of pending bail applications for three of the accused.
Taking into account the killing at Fort Hare University, Ndzimande said he will keep a close eye on the case.
