RE: ANCWL Welcomes Dismissal of Wits Staff for Sexual Harassment

The African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) welcomes the decision of the Witwatersrand University to dismiss two members of their academic staff for sexual harassment and misconduct.

The decision of the Witwatersrand University to dismiss these two employees for abusing their positions to elicit sexual favours from unsuspecting students is very encouraging, especially on the beginning of the Women's Month. It sends a very decisive message to all the sexual predators that are lurking in the workplace that using their positions to seek sexual favours from women is intolerable. It also conveys a clear message to other institutions and companies not to turn a blind eye to cases of sexual harassment and related misconducts.

Sexual harassment denies women their right to choose whether, when, where and with whom to have sexual relationships. It is exploitative, humiliating, abusive and oppressive because commodifies women in the workplace as sexual objects. It constitutes one of the most significant barriers of equity and has turned the workplace into a hostile terrain for women.   

The ANCWL believes that sexual harassment and similar related abuses should be tackled with absolute decisiveness and without a shred of regard to the positions that the perpetrators hold in the companies and society. We applaud the Witwatersrand University for demonstrating that sexual harassment and related cases of sexual exploitation of women in the workplace should be treated with the same contempt as other forms of discrimination and gross misconduct and that decisive actions should be taken with greater urgency to ensure the protection of women from the sexual predators lurking in the workplace to abuse their positions to exploit women for their sexual gratification.  

Statement issued by Nosipho Dothy Ntwanambi, Deputy President of the ANC Women's League, August 1 2013

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