/ 16 September 2016

Marius Fransman resigns from Western Cape legislature

Marius Fransman may be voted out as the ANC provincial chairperson.
Marius Fransman may be voted out as the ANC provincial chairperson.

Marius Fransman, the ANC Western Cape leader, has announced his resignation from the provincial legislature, but not from the ANC.

Fransman confirmed to News24 that he had resigned, and the ANC in the Western Cape has also confirmed the resignation. The announcement came after the Western Cape High Court ruled against Fransman’s bid to not appear before the Provincial Legislature’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).

A report from the Auditor-General in 2014 showed that there had been mismanagement and irregular spending of public money. Fransman and his colleague, Pierre Uys, appeared before Scopa to answer questions around why billions had been spent on consultants. Fransman and Uys walked out of the meeting. EWN reported today that Uys had confirmed Fransman’s resignation.

“I can confirm that I received his resignation today and the speaker [of the province] received his resignation; he’s resigned with immediate effect,” Uys reportedly said. 

Earlier, Fransman was asked to step aside after allegations emerged that he had sexually harassed Louisa Wynand (21), who was working for him as a personal assistant at the time. Wynand said the assault happened in January when they travelled to attend the ANC’s 104th birthday celebration in Rustenburg. Fransman denied the allegations, but the Mail & Guardian reported that the ANC’s integrity commission found that he was “more likely guilty than not”.

An excerpt from the report, where there was unanimous agreement, read: “in light of the above, the integrity commission unanimously finds that the actions and behaviour of comrade Marius Fransman in this matter have brought the ANC into disrepute and have tarnished its image.” 

Wynand said that the assault occurred at the Diamond Road Lodge in Kimberley where she was informed that the booking reservations had been made so that she would have to share a room with Fransman.

“Louisa says that Fransman kept pulling her closer and touched her breasts,” the report states.

“She stayed awake the whole night, in order to prevent anything from happening.”