The Eastern Cape premier, Oscar Mabuyane, has urged all who have experienced sexual harassment to report the crimes to the police so that perpetrators can be held accountable.
This comes after a former public works department employee alleged that the head of the department, Thandolwethu Manda, sexually harassed her while still working for the department.
The former employee worked for the department from July 2019 to May 2021, serving in an administrative capacity.
Investigative panel formed
According to reports, the former employee had to leave her position because Manda had harassed her sexually.
Mabuyane has since assembled an investigative panel of what he calls “prominent persons” in the department to investigate the allegations.
The probe will take place while Manda is on leave.
A contact that was saved as Manda asked the former employee if she would visit his home in a WhatsApp screenshot that went viral.
“I want to have you without a condom, please. I want to look at you in your face when I have sex with you,” reads a WhatsApp conversation.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) said it notes the swift action by the provincial government in placing the alleged perpetrator on leave and constituting a fact-finding panel.
Full extent of GBV not captured
“This decisive action by the Eastern Cape provincial government is all the more significant given that gender-based violence [GBV] is on the rise in South Africa and women, in particular, continue to be subjected to violence on the basis of their gender,” said Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
Vavi said the GBV figures in the country do not capture the full extent of the crisis when underreporting is taken into account.
“The major problem with the South African Police Service, which is heavily relied on for administrative data, does not reflect adequately information on gender when it captures its data,” he said.
“The fear of secondary victimisation, distrust of the criminal justice system, fear of being disbelieved, the social stigma that attaches to reporting rape cases, and so on, presents another difficulty for data collection and thus makes it difficult to capture the severity of the GVB crisis in its fullest.”
He urged the panel to swiftly conduct and complete its investigation in order for the complainant to find closure.
