A security guard. Photo by Protohiro, used under CC BY 2.0.
28 August 2013
Campus Protection Services at the University of Western Cape (UWC), Bellville campus, has been accused of negligence by five students after they were were assaulted in the early hours of 11 August by three men. The students — four female, who have declined to be named for safety reasons, and one male, Sipho* (name changed) — were returning to their residences from the Barn, a university bar.
One of the women said security did not come to their assistance, but instead stood around.
“The three men who were driving, stopped their car and started to beat up our drunk friend, Sipho, who was walking in front of their car,”she said.
“They pulled his pants down … We tried to stop them beating him … Then they started to yell at us: ‘izifebe’ (whores).”
When she told the men there were no other cars on the road and it was wide enough for their car to pass, two of the men slapped her. Her lip was swollen from the assault.
Since the incident, she feels too scared to take the shuttle to class or move about freely on campus. She has now moved in with her boyfriend.
Sipho said he did not report the assault case to the police, as he did not know the names of the men who beat him and cannot identify them. The students think the men may be students living off campus. Sipho does not remember some of the events because he was too drunk. He is outraged that the campus security guards did not intervene. “They just stood looking at the incident”, he said.
In an emailed response to the above allegations, Luthando Tyhalibongo, Communications & Media Relations Manager said, “The University of the Western Cape condemns all acts of violence and encourages the campus community to resolve issues in a peaceful manner, in an environment free of hate and abuse.”
“UWC is investigating the alleged incident of violence between students, which took place during the night of the 11th of August 2013. Unfortunately the incident, alleged to have taken place near the Barn, was not reported to Campus Protection Services (CPS) or any individual security guard. An investigation is also underway to determine whether the alleged incident can be picked up on footage.”
Tyhalibongo said the complainant (who was not part of the fight) has been informed of the investigation, and feedback will be given to her in due course.
This article has been fact-checked by GroundUp
This article has been changed after publication. Despite initially giving permission to GroundUp to publish his name, one of the people mentioned in this article subsequently contacted us to remove his name which we have done.