Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
08 December 2021 | Story Michelle Nothling | Photo Supplied
Lentsu Nchabeleng
Dr Ntheno Nchabeleng was appointed as the Deputy Director in the Gender and Anti-Discrimination Office within the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice.

A total of 10 006 rape cases were reported between April and June 2021. This is according to the latest SA crime statistics for the first quarter of 2021/2022. From a sample of 5 439 of these rape cases, 3 766 of incidents took place in the victim’s home or that of the rapist. A shadow pandemic of gender-based violence against our women and children is raging in South Africa.

It is within this global and local context that the Gender and Anti-Discrimination Office (GEADO) at the university is making inroads into supporting survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) and changing gender stereotypes.

GEADO in focus

GEADO is situated within the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice on the Bloemfontein Campus. It is mandated to deal with incidents of unfair discrimination and GBV as it relates to the UFS community, and to conduct advocacy and training in these areas. Deputy Director of GEADO, Dr Ntheno Nchabeleng, explains that “through high-impact practices and interventions, the Office works to systematically reduce case attrition to ensure that all reports and cases follow procedurally just processes”.

GEADO has been established at all the UFS campuses with well-trained and fully equipped Senior Gender Officers leading each. Geraldine Langau—supported by research assistant Delisile Mngadi—is managing the office at the Bloemfontein Campus, Chelepe Mocwana the Qwaqwa Campus, and Sivuyisiwe Magayana oversees the South Campus office.

Addressing gender-based violence

Prevention and response to GBV are at the core of GEADO’s work. With our country wracked by sexual violence and femicide, “it has become a nightmare to be a woman in South Africa”, Dr Nchabeleng says.

Its preventative efforts focus on the underlying causes of GBV to transform patriarchal notions, misogynistic norms, power imbalances, and toxic gender stereotypes. Fostering collaboration with various strategic partners to strengthen its impact, GEADO recently started working with Amnesty International Sub-Saharan Africa and Amnesty International Latin America to spread awareness on various forms of violence experienced by vulnerable populations. GEADO has also partnered with other local stakeholders in an effort to eradicate GBV through programming that includes awareness campaigns, online mobilisation, training, and webinars.

Becoming part of the solution

“Become change agents,” Dr Nchabeleng urges. One way to start shifting attitudes and mindsets is to change the way we speak. Examples would be to refrain from sexist and discriminatory language and phrases that undermine and degrade our women. Gendered name-calling generally depicts women and girls as inferior and less than fully human. Another area of concern is the way young people — especially young men — engage in disparaging conversations about women on social media platforms. This behaviour needs to cease. As a society, we also need to stop victim blaming, stop normalising rape culture, and stop entertaining sexual violence jokes,” Dr Nchabeleng says.

These changes start with each of us.

Incidents of GBV and discrimination can be reported to GEADO at:
Bloemfontein Campus: +27 51 401 3982
South Campus: +27 51 401 7544
Qwaqwa Campus: +27 58 718 5431

Sexual Assault Response Team (SART):
www.ufs.ac.za/sart 
Toll-free number +27 80 020 4682

News Archive

Lecture honours one of SA’s greatest women leaders
2008-08-22

A member of the national executive committee of the ANC Women’s League, Yolanda Botha, has called on all South Africans to cherish the legacy of Charlotte Maxeke, one of South Africa’s greatest women leaders.

Ms Botha was delivering the first Charlotte Maxeke Memorial Lecture at the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein last night, in honour of the pioneering role played by Maxeke in the struggle for human rights, democracy and freedom. The lecture series is a partnership between the Free State Provincial Government and the university.

She was born Charlotte Makgomo Manye on 7 April 1874 at Ramokgopa in the Polokwane district in Limpopo. In 1905 she graduated from the Wilberforce University in Ohio in the USA with a B.Sc. degree, making her the first black South African woman to graduate with a science degree.

She married the Rev. MM Maxeke, a prominent AME minister who had also been educated overseas, and together they collaborated on the compilation and publication of the first AME church hymn book in Xhosa.

Later she became a founder member and president of the Bantu Women’s League, forerunner of the ANC Women’s League. She was an early opponent of the pass laws for black women and an organiser of the anti-pass movement in Bloemfontein.

Charlotte Maxeke died in 1939. Two years later, an ANC conference held in Bloemfontein, passed a “resolution on the women’s section”.

Elaborating on the challenges that women still face, Ms Botha said poverty remains a challenge affecting the majority of women. She called on all women to unite and engage with government to develop a comprehensive strategy for food security and agricultural support programmes to eradicate poverty.

Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za

22 August 2008

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept