Sex pest Norman Mashabane stepped down as political adviser to Limpopo Premier Sello Moloto this week after the Pretoria High Court convicted him on three charges of sexual harassment.
His loss of office comes not even a month after the ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe was placed on long leave, capping a period in which the sexual abuses of office by politicians has been blown into the open.
The premier’s spokesperson, Mogale Nchabeleng, said Moloto and the Limpopo government condemned “any form of violence against women” and that sexual harassment would not be tolerated.
“It is not in the spirit of building our nation,” he said. Three years ago, Mashabane was found guilty at an initial internal hearing on a battery of charges that included stroking the buttocks of an employee, molesting a staff member in a lift and making suggestive motions with his tongue to another, while employed as South Africa’s Indonesian ambassador.
But Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma overturned the guilty verdict against Mashabane, because she felt that Mashabane was being punished for exposing motor-vehicle fraud at the embassy.
The Mashabane case is one of numerous sexual harassment and other alleged sexual violence cases involving politicians:
Former deputy president Jacob Zuma was acquitted on a rape charge this year in a trial that raised questions about gender equality misogyny.
Gender groups chastised the courts for their of lack sensitivity in dealing with the rape victim.
Chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe, who was already facing maintenance charges for not supporting his children, was suspended last month after an intern alleged he sexually propositioned her. He allegedly asked her to come and “take care” of him and when she refused he said she was not “a real Xhosa girl”. Goniwe claims he is a victim of “a systematic campaign of vilification and character assassination”.
Another ANC provincial chief whip and deputy secretary of the party in Gauteng, Mandla Nkomfe, also reportedly faces sexual harassment charges.
The Sowetan reported last month that Nkomfe “fondled” a female party member and worker in the legislature building and told her they should have sex so she could advance her political career, after she asked him about the vacant position of deputy chief whip.
But ANC spokesperson for the province, Ignatius Jacobs, said the charges were only brought for verbal harassment and not for “being fondled”. He also denied that the complainant is a worker in the legislature. The ruling party in the province is investigating the claims.
In July, Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana was accused of sexual harassment by his deputy Mamiki Shai, who accused him of rubbing his shoulder against her body at a meeting in May in an explicit sexual manner.
Mushwana said she made the allegations after he reprimanded her about her work and exorbitant expenses. Nothing has been resolved.
It is worth noting that several cases are allegations and that Zuma was acquitted, but it is clear that sex, power and abuse thereof is becoming an issue in South Africa.
Gender Links’s executive director Colleen Lowe-Morna said the reason for the recent spate of sex scandals may be that sexual harassment is no longer just swept under the carpet, but that there is more encouragement for cases to be opened up. She said attitudes in the ANC had shifted.
“Successful cases have begun to expose sexual harassment as a problem that should be addressed,” Lowe-Morna said.
She named the Mashabane case as an example that will encourage more victims to come forward. Despite the foreign minister’s protection, the courage of one of his victims has shown that sex pests can be prosecuted with success.
In addition, Goniwe had been made to step down pending an investigation.
This is a sea-change in ANC procedure, said Lowe-Morna.
The Zuma rape saga had been a turning point in how gender violence was handled in the ruling party.
During the trial, all eyes were on the women in the ANC to see how they would react. The ANC Women’s League handled the situation by creating some distance between themselves and Zuma and questioning his actions, she said. “They showed a progressive stance in the Zuma case.” Many gender activists, however, believe the Women’s League was indecisive and absent during the Zuma trial.
The ANC now also has more women in senior positions, Lowe-Morna said, adding that research had shown that “a critical mass of women in high places will give victims a better chance of their cases being taken up, although it is not always true, as the minister of foreign affairs has shown us.”