KZN's rape reports hit 1 820 in three months as Dundee campus opens a room where survivors can stop repeating their story

KwaZulu-Natal recorded 1 820 rapes between April and June this year, the highest number reported in any province for that quarter, and 124 women were murdered in the province over the same three months.

Those are the figures Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Nomusa Dube-Ncube cited on Wednesday as she opened a Comfort Room at Majuba TVET College’s Dundee Campus, a facility meant to give students a single, private place to seek help for gender-based violence, mental health problems and other psychosocial needs.

It is the first facility of its kind in the Post-School Education and Training sector in the province. The room was implemented with Higher Health, Majuba TVET College and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health.

Dube-Ncube said the figures cover reported cases only, and that many survivors stay silent out of fear, stigma and the difficulty of seeking assistance. Survivors are often asked to recount traumatic experiences again and again as they move between health facilities, police stations, social workers and the courts, she said, a situation that can cause secondary victimisation and discourage them from pursuing cases.

The Comfort Room is intended to close some of those gaps by linking students to professional counselling, healthcare, police assistance and psychosocial support rather than leaving them to navigate the system alone.

“This is a safe, private space on campus where a young person can pause, open up, learn, and be connected to the right help, without having to work out the whole system alone,” Dube-Ncube said.

The facility will host survivor clubs, where affected students can find solidarity and be connected to professional assistance, and mentalities clubs aimed particularly at encouraging young men to challenge harmful attitudes and behaviour. It will also run peer support forums for young people living with HIV and hold discussions on mental health.

Higher Health chief executive Professor Ramneek Ahluwalia and his team are working with the college and other partners on access to assistance in a supportive environment, according to the agency’s account.

Dube-Ncube said Higher Health’s programmes have shown that young people will seek help when they are given safe ways to speak about their difficulties. Over the past four years more than 394 000 students completed GBV self-risk assessments, with more than 20 000 then coming forward to request help, and more than 188 000 young people were identified as needing or actively seeking psychosocial support through mental health programmes.

She called on college management and student leaders to make sure students know about the facility and trust it enough to use it. She also urged the college to keep the room properly staffed, linked to local healthcare services, police and social workers, and to follow up on referrals.

Addressing young men, she said the responsibility to end gender-based violence cannot rest with women alone, given that men commit the overwhelming majority of such violence. “The solution must also come from men,” she said, urging young men to challenge abusive behaviour among their peers and promote respect and consent.

The launch forms part of broader government efforts on gender-based violence, which was formally classified as a national disaster in November last year. “What begins in this room today must become part of how the whole country protects its young people,” Dube-Ncube said.

Students and members of the public can reach the GBV Command Centre on 0800 428 428 or by dialling 1207867# from any cellphone. Higher Health’s 24-hour student helpline is on 0800 36 36 36, or by SMS on 43336. Childline can be contacted free of charge on 116, SAPS Crime Stop on 08600 10111, and police on 10111 in an emergency.

This report is based on the South African Government News Agency’s account of the launch, which summarises the Deputy Minister’s remarks and the figures she cited rather than reproducing the underlying police statistics. The original is at https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/comfort-room-opens-support-students-affected-gbv.