Gender Commission to go after university sex pests
By Caleb Chikwawawa
The Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) is set to launch a probe into rampant cases of sexual exploitation against female students by some lecturers within the country’s tertiary institutions.
ZGC Chief Executive Officer Virginia Muwanigwa announced recently that the inquiry is part of the Commission’s attempts to address rampant cases of sexual harassment within the country’s tertiary institutions.
“In terms of some of the new things that we are involved in, I am sure some of you have seen the general notice that we put out of the national inquiry we are going to be doing into sexual harassment in tertiary institutions.
“We continue to work with different partners to address the issue of Gender Based Violence and over the years, the alleged sexual harassment in tertiary institutions has been a key issue.
“There are some complaints we have received here and we thought we want to do a national inquiry into that to get more information,” said Muwanigwa.
Sexual harassment in Zimbabwe’s tertiary institutions has been a cause for concern.
According to a 2015 baseline survey by the Female Student Network Trust, s shocking 98 percent female students reported experiencing forms of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions with most perpetrators being male lecturers.
The probe by the Commission is expected to, among other objectives, bring perpetrators to account, provide institutional reforms and come up with support frameworks for survivors.
