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Unmasking the Shadow Pandemic

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

Service learning teaching strategy essential for the infusion of graduate attributes

2017-01-02

Dr Pulane Pitso, Director: Institutional Performance
Monitoring within Performance Monitoring and Evaluation
Branch in the Department of the Premier, Free State
Provincial Government (FSPG).
Photo: Rulanzen Martin

“Public service delivery is not only about ‘government’s sector end products’, but is also fundamentally related to the ways in which the citizens can be best served at the point of client interface, as the primary beneficiaries.”

It is against this backdrop that Dr Pulane Pitso’s study explored the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in infusing the curriculum with graduate attributes for improved service delivery. The study is entitled: Community service learning as a transformative tool for infusing the university curriculum with graduate attributes for improved service delivery.

Citizens the central focus in public-service delivery
Although with the advent of democracy, the South African public service introduced the Batho Pele “people first” initiative which is one of the key transformation-oriented initiatives to ensure that citizens are the central focus in public service delivery. An extant literature indicates that more work by the government still needs to be done in terms of the institutionalisation and implementation thereof.

Notwithstanding that public service is primarily responsible for addressing challenges related to poor service delivery, Dr Pitso moved from a premise that a multifaceted and collaborative approach, underpinned by a concerted effort by all relevant sectors, is more likely to contribute significantly towards improving service delivery. Specific focus was given to sectors primarily mandated to lay foundations through training and development such as HEIs, since the nature and quality of public service largely depends on the nature, quality and relevance of the system of education.

CSL a transformative teaching strategy
The basis for her thesis, emanated from the contention that public service delivery is a dynamic process which cultivates into a citizen-government relationship.

“It is this relationship that makes the implementation of the Batho Pele initiative crucial in ensuring that the social fabric and moral character of government is not compromised, thus the sustainability and facilitation of the emerged relationship,” Dr Pitso says.

The study focuses on the notion of community service learning (CSL) as an increasingly recognised transformative teaching strategy. It transcends lecture halls and utilises communities as educational spaces to provide practical exposure to real-life experiences to students on both learning and serving the communities.

Instilling graduate attributes in students
Dr Pitso’s thesis, which was predominately qualitative in nature, comprised two main stages. The first stage of the study focused on determining the current state of the public service in terms of the implementation of the Batho Pele principles. Whereas with the second stage, the focus was on determining the extent to which the graduate attributes are instilled in students by means of an exit-level CSL module at the UFS.

Dr Pitso’s thesis, which was awarded to her on 30 June 2016, is the product of five years of hard work, commitment and perseverance. She said it would not have been realised if it had not been for the leadership and mentorship of her promoter, Prof Mabel Erasmus, and co-promoter, Prof Victor Teise.

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