The council of the University of the Witwatersrand today approved a policy that regulates sexual and romantic relationships between staff members and undergraduate and honours students.
The policy recognises the power dynamics that exist between academics and students and seeks to protect students from sexually predatory lecturers.
This comes after the highly publicised case of former Wits drama lecturer Tsepo wa Mamatu who was accused by at least 10 former students of sexual harassment and rape in 2013.
Students put forward complaints that Wa Mamatu was a sexual predator who had preyed on vulnerable young women over a period of six years during rehearsals, auditions and off campus.
He was dismissed from the campus in July 2013 and offered a public apology after nearly a year of denying the allegations.
“I apologise to my community, my society and every woman for failing them. I apologise for abusing my power, vested on me by the university, to fail to be consistent with principles and values of best practice,” he posted on his Facebook account.
*Screenshot from a 2014 Wits Vuvuzela article
The university says this policy has been developed, as one of many others, to combat gender-based harm, sexual harassment and rape.
Wits said today that: “Although these relationships are technically consensual [as opposed to non-consensual sexual harassment, which is covered by Wits’ policy on sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape], in many situations the student feels completely unable to navigate and especially to decisively reject the sexual overtures by lecturers for a range of reasons including being afraid to reject someone with so much institutional power.
“This new policy on sexual and romantic relationships between staff and undergraduate and honours students is designed to protect students in this kind of situation by prohibiting sexual or romantic relationships between staff members and undergraduate and honours students, who are least able to navigate university systems and most susceptible to being abused by staff members who enjoy significant powers and autonomy within the university structure”.
The university acknowledged that not all sexual or romantic relationships between staff members and undergraduate students were inherently problematic. The policy thus contained important exemptions for serious relationships.
These relationships, however, have sufficient potential for the abuse of power, hence management “feels it is obliged to introduce these new measures to prevent abuses”.
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