/ 20 September 1999

GOVT OFFICIAL FINED FOR INDECENT ASSAULT

THE Eastern Cape government’s first high profile sexual harassment case fizzled into a R5000 fine in the Zwelitsha regional court on Friday after Department of Housing and Local Government deputy permanent secretary Ngwadi Mzamo’s conviction for indecently assaulting his former secretary in 1997. Mzamo (33) called married mother Stephanie Kallides (45) into his office where he grabbed her around the neck and, undeterred by her repeated attempts to knee him in the groin, kissed her and stuck his tongue into her mouth while fondling her legs and genitals. Kallides, who said her boss had grabbed her breasts two months earlier saying her husband ”did not pay lobola for them”, finally managed to escape Mzamo’s clutches and ”felt so violated when I got back to my desk I actually had to rinse my mouth out with water”. Kallides said Mzamo emerged from his office minutes later saying: ”Do not give anything to your husband this weekend because I want some next week.” Mzamo told the court he intends lodging an appeal against the judgement.