The African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) has yet to decide when it will hear an appeal by former chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe against his expulsion.
”I’m not sure when the NEC will make a decision on that,” ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said on Thursday.
”If a person is appealing, it’s to the NEC. It is the NEC that will take a decision on the matter. I can’t say more than that.”
Goniwe was expelled from the party for three years for sexual harassment by the ANC’s national disciplinary committee (NDC) after a hearing on December 14.
He has reportedly indicated that he intends asking the NEC to review the decision.
Goniwe allegedly asked an ANC parliamentary administrative assistant to have sex with him after she helped serve dinner to guests at his home in October.
The NDC found him guilty of abusing his office to obtain sexual and other undue advantage, and of behaviour unbecoming a member or public representative.
In the papers he had filed for his appeal, Goniwe took issue with the decision on legal and political grounds, according to a report in the Star newspaper.
He contended that the complainant was the central and only source of the allegations and that political interplay on his stance over divisions in the party may have led to his expulsion.
He was expected to attack to competence and impartiality of Kader Asmal, who chaired the NDC hearing with Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Susan Shabangu and Luwellyn Landers.
Ngonyama said only ANC’s secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe could comment on Goniwe’s appeal. However, Motlanthe could not be reached. — Sapa