Congress of the People MP Phillip Dexter and his academic wife, Neeta Misra Dexter, have laid assault and malicious damage to property charges against each other after a domestic dispute last month.
The couple also applied for protection orders against each other and this month reached a settlement with a court magistrate about how they would conduct themselves. The couple were still sharing a house in Cape Town with their children at the time of the dispute.
As an MP and public figure, Dexter said he had informed his colleagues and planned to be open about the personal problems affecting his life. “If my colleagues believe this publicity is affecting the party negatively, I would be prepared to resign,” he said.
Dexter’s troubles emerged as Cope leader Mbhazima Shilowa and his rival Mosiuoa Lekota battle in court over whether Lekota has the right to the leadership of the party in Parliament and whether a decision to remove Shilowa as Cope’s chief whip was unlawful.
While Cope’s leadership fight continues, Dexter’s battles are of a more personal nature. He showed the Mail & Guardian a cut on the side of his head, which was caused after a wine glass broke on his face during a dispute.
“My wife says she threw the glass. I say she hit me in the face with it and I have witnesses. She also smashed up about R75 000 worth of computers, including her own, and cellular phones,” he alleged. “She has claimed that I smashed her computer, which I deny, and alleged I destroyed the only copy of her book manuscript. I fail to see how that is possible as she had not worked on it for months and was sending chapters to her publisher as she finished them.”
His wife denied this and claimed that she had lost her entire manuscript on trade union movements in South Africa. “I had sent my publishers the draft manuscript, but I had since been rewriting and reworking it for the past year. Why would I smash my own computer? It is absurd for him to lessen the loss,” she said. “I never hit him with a glass. I admit I threw the glass of wine at him and unfortunately it broke on the side of his face. But it happened under extreme provocation and I wish I hadn’t done it. I have never hit anyone in my life.”
Both Dexter and his wife said the dispute had begun over his relationship with another woman.
Dexter claimed that the couple, who were married in community of property, had been planning to divorce. “I started seeing someone else only after we decided to get divorced,” he said. His wife told the M&G she would be filing her divorce papers this week.
Dexter said his finances had become decidedly strained and debts were mounting as the acrimony continued.
But his fortunes could change if he wins the court action he has launched against the Nehawu Investment Company, the investment arm of the National Education and Health Workers’ Union.
A former secretary general of Nehawu and a director of the Nehawu Investment Company for 12 years, Dexter is claiming R30-million from Nehawu Investment Company in outstanding incentive bonuses he claims were owed to him.
But the Nehawu Investment Company is disputing the matter and has said its board of directors had never heard of the agreement to pay bonuses to Dexter and had not approved them. The case is continuing. Dexter was fired by Nehawu in 2008 for being involved in setting up Cope.