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WRITTEN BY:
Faatima Laher
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a deeply rooted and pervasive issue in South Africa, affecting nearly every facet of society.
It is often framed in terms of physical harm or visible abuse. But behind every act of violence, lies something less visible and more insidious – power.
Power dynamics are particularly insidious because they often operate in the grey areas, where conduct may not be illegal, but is nonetheless exploitative or unethical.
Consider, for example, a lecturer engaging in a relationship with a student or a manager dating a junior employee.
Even if such relationships appear consensual, the inherent power imbalance complicates true consent and raises serious ethical concerns.
The imbalance disproportionately targets women and girls and is embedded within the country’s institutions, cultural norms and longstanding traditions. Until we confront and dismantle these power dynamics, our efforts to end GBV will be incomplete.
On 3 April 2025, SECTION27 successfully received a future maintenance order from the Nkomazi Magistrates’ Court in Mpumalanga.
We first consulted with our client in 2022, when we were made aware of her circumstances. At the time, she was a Grade 11 student who had “entered into” a relationship and was impregnated by her teacher.
The term “entered into” is used very loosely. While she may have been of legal age to consent (which is 16), the reality is far more complex.
Power doesn’t always look like brute strength or obvious dominance. In this case power appeared in the form of an educator taking advantage of his students by providing monetary benefits for sexual favours.
Schools are intended to be spaces of learning and safety. However, when power is concentrated with those who hold authority over students – these environments can become breeding grounds for abuse.
This is evident in this case, and the recent Cwecwe case, and those learners who we may never hear about.
In this case, the teacher used his professional position and economic standing to initiate a sexual relationship with a learner from a very poor rural community.
While the learner may have been of legal age to consent, this framing ignores the inherent power imbalance: a learner in Grade 11 from a poor community with parents who are pensioners and living on grant versus an adult in a position of trust and influence.
Despite this harrowing experience, she fell pregnant again and expressed a desire to keep the child. Yet once again, she was compelled to consume rat poison and pressured to abort the pregnancy, which she refused to do.
In addition to the physical and emotional trauma she endured, she contracted HIV from her abuser and will now require lifelong antiretroviral treatment.
After everything the teacher put her through, he had the audacity to deny paternity of the child and refused to pay maintenance. Despite this, we supported our client in pursuing justice and successfully obtained a maintenance order on 19 April 2023, holding him legally responsible for the child’s financial support.
In January 2025, the South African Council of Educators (SACE) concluded its investigation into the teacher’s conduct and found him guilty, ordering that he be struck off the roll of teachers. SACE further directed that his name be placed on Part B of the National Child Protection Register.
Following the loss of his job, the teacher informed our client that he would no longer pay maintenance for the child and that she would not be entitled to any money he might receive.
In response, we urgently approached the court in terms of the Maintenance Act, which allows for a pension to be attached to a maintenance order in the event of default.
On 3 April, the court ordered that the educator be liable for R38 000 in future maintenance over the next two years and that he is also responsible for paying arrear maintenance, which has been outstanding since February this year.
The court ordered that the funds be paid immediately upon receipt and ordered that we return to court on 28 May to ensure that the educator has paid.
This case underscores how authority, trust, and dependency can be weaponised against vulnerable individuals, with devastating consequences. Through legal intervention by SECTION27, our client was able to reclaim a degree of power, legally securing a maintenance order and compelling accountability, even in the face of institutional failure.
As recognised by the Supreme Court of Appeal in S v Coko, the law must take into account how overlapping identities such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status shape the ways in which individuals are rendered vulnerable within systems of power.
Factors like race, class, sexuality, gender, and disability all influence who is most at risk, who is believed, and who ultimately receives justice.
The more layers of marginalisation a person bears, the more susceptible they become to violence—and the less likely they are to find protection or recourse.
To truly combat GBV, society must move beyond punitive measures and begin dismantling the power structures that allow abuse to persist.
This includes rethinking how consent is defined in hierarchical relationships, increasing oversight and accountability within schools, and ensuring that learners know their rights and have access to resources that protect them.
Institutions themselves can be complicit, whether through silence, inadequate reporting mechanisms, or a failure to act on known abuses.
In schools, for instance, inappropriate relationships between educators and learners are sometimes ignored or minimised, allowing harmful dynamics to flourish unchecked.
Addressing GBV requires not only targeting individual perpetrators but also confronting the institutional cultures that enable and protect them.
Furthermore, it requires a radical redistribution of power socially, economically, and politically. Until then, GBV will remain not just an epidemic, but a reflection of the world we’ve built.
Laher is a Candidate Attorney at SECTION27.
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