The future of ActionSA Gauteng provincial secretary and MMC of human settlements in the City of Tshwane Abel Tau is in peril after his party resolved to subject him to a disciplinary process following allegations of serious sexual misconduct.
The print version of the Sunday World reported this past weekend that Tau is accused of having tried to force himself on his friend’s wife.
It is alleged that Tau’s associate, who is also his childhood and family friend, is said to have dozed off after a heavy drinking session at Tau house. Tau is then alleged to have called his friend’s wife to come and fetch her husband, as he was too drunk to drive.
When the wife arrived, she found him “out of it”. It is at this stage that Tau is said to have made sexual advances on the wife, which she rebuffed. He allegedly then tried to force himself on her, but she successfully fended him off. The friend is also Tau’s subordinate in the City and a fellow ActionSA member.
A case of attempted rape has since been opened and the prosecutor’s office is attending to the docket.
In the virtual secret meeting of the ActionSA Senate held on Wednesday, where the leader of the party Herman Mashaba was present alongside the chairperson Michael Beaumont, a decision was taken that Tau should face the music.
The party Senate decided to institute disciplinary proceedings against Tau regarding allegations of attempted rape.
In the statement released by Beaumont, the party confirmed that the Senate met on Wednesday night to address a number of matters including those relating to discipline of party members.
“At this meeting the Senate considered a proposal to place MMC of Human Settlements in the City of Tshwane, Cllr Abel Tau, under precautionary suspension pending the outcome of a disciplinary process. While such a disciplinary process would be separate to any investigations underway with law enforcement authorities, it remains critical for the party to ventilate the allegations through a properly constituted disciplinary process,” said Beaumont.
Insiders told Sunday World that Tau was not part of the meeting where his fate was discussed on Wednesday night.
Beaumont also said that in response to a right of reply extended with respect to the proposal for precautionary suspension, which Tau wrote to ActionSA supporting the proposal and requesting an expedited disciplinary process.
“ActionSA can confirm that its disciplinary panel has been convened and will sit during the course of next week to hear this matter. Until such time as this process is concluded, ActionSA will not comment further on this matter in the interests of the integrity of our disciplinary processes,” said Beaumont.
Tau serves as MMC in the City of Tshwane as part of a DA led coalition government that emerged from the 2021 local government elections.
By all indications, ActionSA seems to have tried to keep the allegations against Tau from its coalition partners until the Sunday World expose, despite the allegations having brought to the party’s attention for several weeks.
The coalition is made up of the DA, ActionSA, Freedom Front Plus, ACDP, IFP and COPE. The coalition management committee met on Monday and resolved that the speaker of council, Murunwa Makwarela [from COPE], will launch an investigation into Tau’s actions involving the wife of a municipal employee in terms of the councillors’ code of conduct.
“The Tshwane Coalition yesterday (Sunday) became aware of a criminal case opened against Mayoral Committee Member, Abel Tau…the chief whip of council, Christo van der Heever [from DA], will also immediately process an application brought by ActionSA to put councillor Tau on forced leave,” the statement read.
The City’s executive mayor Randall Williams on Monday also expressed surprised at the allegations levelled against Tau. “The office of the Executive Mayor has noted the serious allegations made against the MMC for Human Settlements, Cllr Abel Tau, in a newspaper article published yesterday. The political executive in the City was not aware of the allegations until the news article was published,” his statement read.
