SOUTH African schools are increasingly becoming hotspots for sexual violence, as highlighted by a recent report from the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).
The comprehensive report, "Sexual violence at schools: a crisis of fragmentation, delayed integration, incomplete register population, and uneven enforcement", highlights this grim reality.
This emerged after a recent stakeholder engagement aimed at addressing escalating reports of sexual violence in educational settings.
The SAHRC, in a statement, said that the engagement followed a formal human rights complaint they received concerning allegations of sexual violence perpetrated by teachers at a school in Mthatha, Eastern Cape.
They said the complaint, alongside increasing public reports of teacher-to-pupil and pupil-to-pupil sexual violence, prompted the SAHRC to seek systemic clarity and coordinated responses across institutions.
