Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the wife of sex-pest former diplomat Norman Mashabane, will stand by her man despite a High Court ruling that said he should have been fired on allegations of sexual harassment.
Nkoana-Mashabane, the MEC in charge of local government and housing in Limpopo, said the family would challenge the department of foreign affairs through the labour court: "Elements in the media continue to pursue the unsubstantiated and disputed allegations that featured in internal proceeding in the department of foreign affairs more than three years ago, with an unexplained frenzy," she said this week.
"The family has experienced a testing and traumatic period in regard to the disputes and publicity surrounding our husband and father, Norman. Legal proceedings have been instituted against the department," she said.
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"The false and defamatory allegations of our family's adversaries will be tested fully in court."
Earlier this month, Judge Jerry Shongwe, the deputy judge president of the high court in Pretoria, ruled in favour of an application by Lara Swart to review the decision by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign affairs minister, in April 2004, to let Mashabane off the hook on sexual harassment claims, after he had been found guilty by a departmental disciplinary hearing.
Shongwe said Mashabane's appeal against his dismissal for sexual harassment had been set aside, adding that the minister's decision would be replaced with the following: "The appeal is dismissed. The finding of guilt on three charges of sexual harassment and the sanction of dismissal are confirmed."
Dlamini-Zuma was ordered to pay Swart's legal costs, estimated to be around R500 000.
Nkoana-Mashabane told SAFM earlier that she loved her husband and nobody knew him as well as she did, adding the family would be spending "a private and nurturing time" together during the holidays.
Despite requests for interviews, Mashabane has refused to to speak.
"Why should I chat with you? You have repeatedly called me a sex pest."
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This article was originally published on page 3 of Sunday Independent on December 24, 2006
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