Stellenbosch shakes silence on rape

STELLENBOSCH, 2015/04/24, A Stellenbosch university student tells her story at The Student Representative Council (SRC) launched a campaign to create awareness about sexual violence. According to the SRC there is an urgent need for discussion and awareness relating to sexual violence due to the fact that it happens on campus, among students and in the community. Shaken Silence is aiming to 'shake the silence' against sexual violence. Picture: Adrian de Kock

STELLENBOSCH, 2015/04/24, A Stellenbosch university student tells her story at The Student Representative Council (SRC) launched a campaign to create awareness about sexual violence. According to the SRC there is an urgent need for discussion and awareness relating to sexual violence due to the fact that it happens on campus, among students and in the community. Shaken Silence is aiming to 'shake the silence' against sexual violence. Picture: Adrian de Kock

Published Apr 26, 2015

Share

Cape Town - Students at Stellenbosch University have launched an awareness campaign called Shaken Silence to urge survivors of sexual violence to speak out and seek help.

The campaign comes after an incident this year when the university’s student representative council (SRC) set up a task team to tackle the issue.

The council’s vice-chairwoman, Rodé Brand, said there had been “numerous incidents” at both campus residences and places where students partied and engaged socially.

“Incidents of rape and sexual assault have taken place over the past five years and there have been cases of girls who’ve gone out and not remembered what had taken place,” Brand said.

She said they had a responsibility to address the issue as survivors often suffered “immense shame and guilt” and kept silent about their ordeal.

The SRC hoped the campaign would create a platform that was urgently needed to raise awareness of sexual violence on campus and to offer support for survivors to get the help they need.

At the campaign launch this week a small group of students, mostly women, gathered at the university's Rooiplein stairs.

Brand told the group that violence had become a “norm” in society and a serious mind-shift was required to change this.

She said derogatory terms like “slut” and “whore” were commonly used to refer to survivors of sexual assault or they were accused of “crying wolf” when they reported these crimes.

SRC member Kyle Anderson said often discussions around sexual violence against women were considered by men as just a “female issue”. South Africa had the second highest incidence of rape. The crime was like a “dark elephant” in the room that people were often reluctant to address.

He said from his experience in male university residences, men would on a daily basis use degrading sexual innuendos about female students. “We need to start discussing the gross realities in society and break the shackles of silence.”

A female student spoke of her ordeal which had not taken place on campus but when she was 9 years old. She was sexually molested by her 15-year-old cousin and his friend.

“I remember the smell of the room, the time, what was playing on TV, anything to keep my mind off what was happening,” she recalled.

She only told her mother about the assault years later, when she turned 18.

She told the group she was then sworn to further secrecy by her mother who asked her to not to tell the rest of the family.

“The silence made me angry... filled with promiscuity and binge-eating. Two years later, I told my mom that it was wrong of her to have told me to keep quiet.

“It’s happened to so many women around us and the perpetrators are not just these evil characters they portray in movies, they are people we party with on a Friday night, in our classes and our own family.

“We make a difference by letting people know what our reality is and we don’t have to be ashamed because no one has the right to do that to someone else,” she said.

University spokesman Martin Viljoen said the initiative was supported by the university management.

“The management of Stellenbosch University has taken note of the Shaken Silence campaign and supports the initiative by student leaders to create awareness around this issue,” said Viljoen.

Weekend Argus

Related Topics: