SEX ON UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES

Dr. Agrippa Khathide

The allegations that some university campuses are used to hold striptease shows, pornographic movies and even brothel activities during weekend nights should not come as a surprise especially to people who interact with the students especially at tertiary level.

The painful part of the saga is that most of those students are being sustained by the meager salaries of their poor parents.  The reason often offered for being involved in sex work activities is lack of money.  My worry is whether poverty can be used to justify immoral behaviour.  There are so many people, old and young, who live in abject poverty but who refuse to betray their values and dignity.

It could be that students who engage themselves in sex-work activities may no be in dire need but just want to cash in on a quick buck for their envisaged life of luxury other than their basic necessities.  In order to maintain this lifestyle, poor parents are meant to pay through their nose.  A story is told of a learner where I live who told his mother that he needed money to buy a “photosynthesis”.  Because of ignorance, the poor parent had no choice but to pay the required amount.

 As parents we cannot remain unconcerned by this state of affairs.  Institutions of higher learning are meant to produce leaders of our society.  If the rot is not stopped there we cannot hope to have a stable society.

 But it would be hypocritical to say some of this questionable behavior by students is new. The difference is that modern students have become more daring and aggressive in what they do more so if it touches on morality.

 A member of the SRC from one of the institutions gave a call pleading with me if I could visit their campus because their student body was sinking under the yoke of immoral behaviour.  He said that as many as 50% of their student body is HIV positive.  Obviously I could not independently verify those statistics.  But undoubtedly this should sound an alarm to all those who are concerned not only with the moral life of younger people but of the nation as a whole.  The investment of government on each university student is sufficient to jolt society into immediate action to salvage our students on various institutions.

 One would hope that students at the higher institutions of learning would be intellectually independent enough to stand their ground and make decisions that would benefit country and society as a whole.  But away from the watchful eye of parents, some students decide to be influenced and swayed mob thinking only to regret it later on in life.

 The life of a booze, zol and jol may be attractive to those who are new to campus life but at the end it does not carry one anywhere.  It leads to the route of self-destruction.

 There is nothing that makes sex more interesting if it is done on a campus.  Actually, it may leave a person with permanent scars.  I am reminded of the words of Richard Forster who says, “sex is like a great river that is rich and deep and good as long is it stays within its proper channel”.  

This post was originally written by Dr. Agrippa Khathide who is also a pastor of one of the oldest church in South Africa - the Apostolic Faith Mission.