Controversial Beaufort West politician Truman Prince on Wednesday night committed himself to promoting the rights of women after being found guilty by an African National Congress disciplinary committee.
The three-person committee sitting in Cape Town suspended Prince’s ANC membership for six months after convicting him on two charges of bringing the organisation into disrepute.
”We are also of the view that his behaviour manifested a flagrant violation of the moral integrity expected of members of the ANC and public representatives”, said committee chairperson Peter Williams.
The committee found that the manager of the Central Karoo district municipality made ”disrespectful and demeaning” comments with sexual overtones to three females in the Karoo town in January this year.
The interchange was recorded by a South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) television crew filming a group of young women and underage girls soliciting truck drivers.
On the second charge, Prince had been rude and grossly insulting to staff of the Whistlestop restaurant in Laingsburg in April this year, also addressing them in a disrespectful and demeaning manner.
William said the committee found Prince’s references to Aids on this occasion ”especially repugnant”.
”We are also of the view that there was a measure of provocation by one or two of the women. But this cannot justify his conduct and he still had an obligation to exercise restraint.”
Williams said swearing at women, using sexually suggestive language to underage girls and publicly demeaning women undermine their self-image and confidence and violate their right to protection of and respect for their inherent dignity.
Prince’s conduct had been ”manifestly sexist”.
Williams said Prince has been cleared of two other charges — intimidating a woman in Beaufort West in March and threatening human rights worker Vuyisa Jantjies.
Prince is a seasoned ANC activist who suffered immensely at the hands of the apartheid regime and still has a role to play in the organisation and the community.
Disciplinary proceedings should be used not to destroy people politically but as a means to rehabilitate errant behaviour, Williams said.
ANC Western Cape provincial secretary Ncebisi Skwatsha said Prince’s membership will be ”effectively suspended” for six months starting from Wednesday, and he has been ordered to make a public apology.
Prince read out the apology immediately afterwards to the disciplinary committee and a room full of other ANC officials and journalists.
In it, he said he unconditionally accepts the committee’s decision.
He apologised to the three young women in the January incident ”and to all women who might have felt offended by my conduct”.
”I commit myself to advance and promote the rights of women and undertake not to act in a demeaning and rude manner towards women in the future.”
Prince still faces a criminal charge in Beaufort West of assault and riotous behaviour after a scuffle with an SABC television crew in the town last month.
He received a reprieve last month when the municipality declined to act on a South African Local Government Association recommendation that he be suspended from his post as municipal manager in the light of the ongoing controversy. — Sapa