Bonile Khanyi
The Commission for Gender Equality found that females occupy at least 48% of senior management positions at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).
This was revealed on Tuesday, when the university’s senior management appeared before the commission on gender transformation at institutions of higher learning.
During his presentation on Tuesday, UJ’s outgoing Vice-Chancellor Professor Ihron Rensburg also revealed that of the 1101 academic staff at the university, 527 were women compared to 574 men.
Further adding that of the 3010 support-staff, 1538 were women and 1472 were men.
Speaking to Inside Education on Thursday, the commission’s spokesperson Javu Baloyi said compared to the other universities the commission has seen so far, UJ has done extremely well.
However, the commission said despite making progress in terms of gender transformation, the University still has a long way to go in addressing its racial makeup to reflect the population of South Africa.
“The University is showing progress in terms of gender transformation but certain areas need to be looked at and mechanisms be put in place as well as policies to be tightened up to realize gender equality,” the commission said.
The commission also commended the university for dealing with reported Sexual Harassment and Gender Based Violent (GBV) cases effectively.
This comes after the university revealed that the number of reported cases in student affairs were 11 and 8 in employment relations.
The commission said it notes the response provided by the institution and applauds the university for the initiative taken to address GBV.
The commission has heard presentations from the University of Pretoria, North West University, University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Tshwane University of Technology.
Baloyi said the commission will be hosting the University of Stellenbosch (US) and Rhodes University next.
