R2K Statement – The Right2Know is committed to confronting patriarchy!
The past three years have been very challenging for the Right2Know Campaign. Not only did we face a leadership crisis, the COVID_19 pandemic but the Campaign was also marred by allegations of sexual harassment against two of our senior leaders. And we would like to issue our heartfelt apology to the womxn who were subjected to these men’s offensive patriarchal behaviour. We acknowledge that the manner with which these complaints were attended to by the previous management and leadership could have been better. There is an urgent need to combat patriarchy across all sectors of our society and especially within activist spaces, including the Right2Know Campaign.
As a Campaign, we have always spoken out against cover-ups and a culture of intimidation that usually prevents womxn from speaking out. We tried, albeit delayed, to adopt a transparent process in addressing allegations of sexual harassment within the Campaign.
One leader was expelled from the Campaign three years ago and barred from rejoining unless he demonstrate his willingness to reconsider his views by attending training on sexual harassment. After a lengthy legal process, we parted ways by means of mutual termination with the second alleged perpetrator early this year. At our most recent National Summit, we reflected on how some of the ways in which the cases were dealt with by the previous leadership and management left much to be desired. We have committed to and continue to commit to doing better as an organisation. We invite members of R2K to continue to come forward and raise any concerns they may have about staff or activists who have behaved inappropriately in the organisation.
R2K as an organisation condemns sexual harassment in all its forms and the oppressive nature of patriarchy. We continue to act vigorously to do away with the culture of harassment in our homes, workplaces and organisations. Our work on combating patriarchy internally in the organisation has taken a number of forms, including workshops and resolutions from the national summit, the highest decision-making structure of the campaign.
The 2017 R2K Summit resolved that as we strive to be a feminist organisation, we would continue to focus on creating a friendly space for women internally. This work entails engagements with both men and womxn to understand patriarchy and feminism. We agreed to continue to work to make R2K a safe space for womxn and the LGBTIQA+ community through gender sensitising workshops and raising awareness about our sexual harassment policy.
We agreed to invest in leadership development for R2K womxn to strengthen their voices but also resolved to do Gender Training with all the incoming NWG and Provincial leadership. We strive to have womxn represented with at least 50% of leadership at all levels of decision-making and resolved to continue to collaborate with other womxn’s organisations and LGBTIQA+ organisations to fulfil our resolutions.
As the campaign, we note with grave concern the number of children, womxn and LGBTIQA+ who have been abused, violated or killed by their intimate partners or men they know. We cannot afford to remain silent while there’s a silent war against children, womxn and LGBTIQA+.
We call on the justice system to desist from secondary victimising and failing people who come forward to report abuse related cases. We also call on the department of womxn and children to do more in raising awareness and empowering children, womxn and LGBTIQA+. We must not wait for the 16 days of activism in order to see our government’s commitment to fighting against this scourge.
We demand justice for all survivors and victims of domestic violence, sexual harassment and femicide!
For more information contact:
Axolile Notywala, R2K National Coordinator: 074 386 1584
Verushka Memdutt, R2K NWG Member: 083 311 6397
Thami Nkosi, R2K Interim Programmes Coordinator: 062 624 5992
