Secretly taped conversations, sexual harassment claims and the dynamics of the Western Cape New National Party when it ruled the province are all part of a R2,8-million civil lawsuit against two former premiers by their former colleague.
Former MEC Freda Adams this week took the stand in the Cape High Court in her sexual harassment and defamation case against Peter Marais, a former Cape Town mayor now running his own political party, and Gerald Morkel, another former mayor who remains a councillor.
The civil suit is the latest twist in sexual harassment claims against Marais, who in May last year resigned as Western Cape premier after a woman laid criminal charges against him following a flurry of allegations by other women. The state declined to prosecute.
The court was told that the harassment started in 1998 when Adams and Marais posed for a photo and he ran his fingers along her neck. Propositions continued. Once Marais apparently tried to kiss Adams with his mouth full of food.
In 1999 Adams says Marais told her: ”If I look at you and I smell your perfume then I could undress you. I could lick you the whole night long from your toes right up to your head.”
Adams on Thursday testified how she uncovered financial irregularities in poverty alleviation projects initiated by Marais as welfare MEC. She landed the portfolio, in addition to the gender and disability offices, after Marais was expelled from the NNP on Valentine’s Day 1999 for his flirtation with the African National Congress, against the party line.
Although Morkel was informed both of the unwelcome sexual advances and the mismanagement, he failed to act. Instead Adams says she was told they were ”jokes” and ”men acting like men”.
The court must still decide whether transcripts of telephone conversations recorded over months will be admissible as evidence. Marais’s counsel argued they were not because they were ”done stealthily” and using the records constituted a breach of privacy.
Marais and Morkel appeared briefly in court on Thursday morning.
Both men are defending the action. Marais has launched a R2,5-million defamation suit against Adams in a counter-claim to her R1,2-million claim for sexual harassment and R1,125-million for defamation.
Morkel is being sued for R500 000 for defamation.