Gaye Davis
SENIOR Human Rights Commission official Anne Routier has tendered her resignation following a blistering row with chair Barney Pityana.
Routier, a National Party nominee to the commission who convenes its committee for policy and planning, and heads its Eastern Cape region, tendered her resignation with immediate effect in a letter to the secretary of Parliament late last month.
The commission, which has sought to keep the issue under wraps, has asked her to reconsider, and drafted in other officials to mediate.
The commission was rocked last year by the resignation of veteran human rights campaigner Max Coleman, who is also thought to have clashed with Pityana. Both Coleman and the commission maintained his departure was for “personal reasons”, but differences between him and Pityana were widely rumoured to be the root cause.
Routier gave no reasons in the letter for her resignation, but the Mail & Guardian understands that it followed a showdown with Pityana.
The dispute led to fellow commissioner Karthy Govender being called in to mediate between them.
Routier this week confirmed she had written the letter of resignation but declined to give any details.
“Since [writing the letter] all the commissioners and the chair have asked me to seriously reconsider and I have agreed to do that,” she said.
“I will be taking leave at the end of this week to reflect on things and will report back on July 21. Until that time it is inappropriate to comment.”
Pityana said he was not aware that Routier’s decision to resign was sparked by any argument between them, and refused to discuss the matter further.
He channelled all inquiries to the commission’s media office.
The commission, tasked with monitoring human rights abuses, has had to battle with a range of difficulties – most of them said to be structural -which have impeded its work.
Most critical of these has been a budget described by chief executive officer Louisa Zondo as “inadequate”.