WITS mens’ residence Raiders came under serious criticism yesterday following accusations of sexual discrimination against women after a series of tweets were tweeted from their official Twitter account.

Wits Vuvuzela managed to screengrab some of the tweets which have now been deleted from their official account:

 

TWITTER OUTRAGE: A screenshot of the tweets sent out by mens res raiders yesterday.

TWITTER OUTRAGE: A screenshot of the tweets sent out by mens res raiders yesterday.

Chairperson of the men’s res house committee Rodney Motjamela said that the committee are due to meet to discuss the issue, confirming that they know who sent out the tweets but will “issue a statement in due time.”

“There is a lot that I could say in my personal capacity but unfortunately when you are in leadership you don’t always have that luxury,” said Motjamela.

The residence whose visiting hours end at 23h00 on weekdays and 00h00 on weekends have been complaining. Saying that visiting girls are creating an environment that makes it difficult to focus and study.

“There is a lot that I could say in my personal capacity but unfortunately when you are in leadership you don’t always have that luxury,”

Student Representative Council (SRC) member Senzekahle Mbokazi however spoke out against the tweets saying “We feel that it was inappropriate to lodge complaints on such a platform firstly, and secondly the responses to individual students could have been handled in a more respectable manner”.

Additionally, Mbokazi advised that future matters of this capacity are taken first to the House itself in a house meeting before its internal matters are taken out in public.

Residence cluster manager of the mens res Doreen Musewa refuted the statement saying no official complaints have been lodged. “I have not received any complaints, we expect that the students to come to us if they have any issues”.

 

 

SILENT SCREAMS: Men's Res Raiders have been criticized follwing tweets over sexual discrimination. Photo: Rafieka Williams

SILENT SCREAMS: Men’s Res Raiders have been criticized follwing tweets over sexual discrimination. Photo: Rafieka Williams

4th year LLB student Nkululeko Nkosi spoke out against the tweets describing them as “absolutely ridiculous” saying that they were “disrespectful.”  Nkosi said “I found that type of behaviour extremely problematic and in how it painted out women in general and I don’t think that as a male res making those type of comments would be well received.”

Nkosi also mentioned that the platform was not used correctly suggesting that it “sends out a bad message that Wits encourages that sort of behaviour.”

Nkosi referred to a case of homophobia last year from the men’s res where a couple of students felt they were not welcomed into the res, “we make it clear that these sort of utterances on a public platform or private are not welcome in our space,” said Nkosi.

Mbokazi confirmed that the SRC are yet to engage with the leadership of the All Residence Council to discuss a way forward to prevent this happening in future. “We need student-unity because without a unified student body this university cannot progress in a student-centred manner where all, regardless of gender  have access to education.”