THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT POLICY IN TWO SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE UNITS

Abstract

Sexual harassment is a problem characteristic of many workplaces in South Africa and abroad. The South African National Defence Force is not immune hence the Department of Defence has formulated a Policy on the Prevention and Elimination of Sexual Harassment. This research sets out to explore the experiences that managers, victims or survivors and ultimately the organisation have in the implementation of the policy on the Prevention and Elimination of Sexual Harassment. A qualitative method of enquiry was employed to source information from the participants. This method involves a complex narrative which takes the researcher into multiple dimensions of a problem or issue and displays it in its complexity. The essence of the findings of this study is that sexual harassment is a reality for the South African National Defence Force. However the policy on the prevention and elimination of sexual harassment is not known or applied across the board. The dissemination of the knowledge on this policy is done in an ad hoc and inconsistent manner