The University of Cape Town has responded to sexual assault allegations involving one of the professors.
An anonymous Twitter account, believed to be run by the sexual assault victim has shared how the university has tried to silence them from reporting the matter and failed to suspend the alleged perpetrator.
The anonymous account tweeted: “I‘m a UCT student raped by a UCT professor on UCT premesis. I reported thus to UCT & for months they failed to act/suspend rapist. UCT has instructed me to not report the matter & keep it “internal”. I received threats from rapist. I’m in witness protection.”
In response to this, UCT said they understand from some of the information shared through the tweets that this is in relation to an ongoing matter that is being jointly addressed by specific departments in government, in collaboration with UCT.
They stated that the university is aware that the allegation of sexual misconduct is being investigated by SAPS. They said the Western Cape Health department is also conducting investigations around this matter. “The student has been offered support available at the university and/or referrals to relevant external organisations. The student is at liberty to choose not to use these services,” they said.
They added that the alleged perpetrator is a joint staff member between WCG Health and UCT, in a relationship governed by a bilateral agreement.
“UCT does not and has not paid any legal fees for anyone involved in this or any other legal case. UCT is not at liberty to discuss this further in the public domain but can state that the matter is being dealt with and reviewed by the relevant and appropriate independent investigation panels,” they said.
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Picture: Cape Town ETC