Joint statement: We are concerned about the culture of sexual harassment within the SABC!

R2K and SOS are seriously concerned with the recent revelations of what seems to be an endemic culture of sexual harassment within the corridors of the SABC. We strongly believe that the culture of silence around the matter is a cause for concern and inhibits the institution from dealing effectively with and addressing these issues.

The allegations are of serious nature and must be attended to immediately if the institution is serious about ensuring and enabling a safe environment for women to thrive personally and professionally. It is clear that this has been continuing for a long time and has been successfully kept under the radar by the leadership at the institution. Further, this raises serious questions about the institution’s knowledge, concern and ability to address issues of rape and sexual violence in the workplace.

Setting up the commission of inquiry has been useful in uncovering the extent of the problem but now raises the need for decisive action to be taken into the allegations of sexual harassment within the SABC. Moreover, although the SABC has a strong sexual harassment policy, the reality demonstrates that this has not translated well into the lived experiences of the employees within the institution as most cases have been dealt with informally.

We attribute part of this to the lack of transparency about what the sexual harassment policy entails. However, beyond transparency, we also believe that there needs to be proper training regarding sexual harassment in the workplace in order to spark a conversation on these issues and create a culture where employees are not only unafraid to report sexual harassment incidents but also play an active role in preventing these incidents from occurring. This should include workshops to equip employees with strategies that make it easy to identify when sexual harassment is occurring and how to confront it head-on. Further, we demand that a policy be created to protect all whistleblowers in order to reinforce and encourage issues of sexual harassment to be reported without any victimisation or negative repercussions.

Moving forward, we demand that the investigation and recommendations of the commission process be made public and criminal charges be pursued against perpetrators. Lastly, we encourage all survivors of and witnesses to, sexual harassment to come forward so that justice can be administered.

For further comment contact:

Lazola Kati, R2K National Communications Right’s Organiser: 072 956 7753

Duduetsang Makuse, SOS National Coordinator: 060 911 5889