An appeal to uphold sexual harassment findings against former ambassador Norman Mashabane will probably only be heard in September, the Public Servants’ Association of South Africa (PSA) said on Friday.
Mashabane was to have appeared in the Pretoria High Court on Friday, said the PSA’s Johan Blommestein.
The parties to the matter were trying to arrange an alternative date for the hearing. This would probably be in September, he said.
Mashabane, formerly South Africa’s ambassador to Indonesia, was found guilty by a disciplinary committee in 2001 of 22 counts of sexual harassment, including stroking an employee’s buttocks, molesting a staff member in a lift and making suggestive motions with his tongue to another.
The committee recommended that he be fired, but he remained in his post pending an appeal and was found guilty of another sexual harassment count in 2003.
His appeals were upheld in 2004 by Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who reversed the findings, suggesting that Mashabane was being dragged through the mud for exposing motor-vehicle fraud at the embassy.
However, her finding is being challenged by the PSA and foreign-affairs employee Lara Swart, who want it overturned by the Pretoria High Court.
The state initially indicated it would not oppose the matter after Dlamini-Zuma filed an affidavit in June outlining the reasons for her decision, but Mashabane then appointed his own legal counsel. — Sapa