Durban - An SAPS clerk who was sexually assaulted by a colleague while at work is suing the minister of police for R400 000 alleging that at least three other women, all police officers, had lodged similar complaints against him since 2011, but the management did not deal with them.
The “sex pest” policeman - based at a large police station in the Durban area - was finally fired last month following a disciplinary hearing which, the clerk’s attorney, Leon Dunn, has confirmed, was instituted only after she wrote directly to the Office of the President.
Details of the allegations against the warrant officer are laid bare in the summons and the attached affidavits from the other women which were served on him and the minister this week.
They have 20 days to file notices of intention of defend and, if it is opposed, the civil trial will be set down in the Durban Regional Court.
The Mercury is unable to name the parties or the police station, to protect the privacy of the victims.
The first complainant was a fellow warrant officer based at the same police station.
She said during 2011 he would be “very friendly in an uncomfortable way which I tried to just ignore”.
“Over the months it became worse and he would do things like blow kisses to me and tell me he loved me. He would not be put off - at times I just ignored it, hoping he would stop.
“It got worse over time and I was hearing that he was doing it to other women at the station and realised that he was not going to stop. It got so bad that, when he heard me talking, like saying I was hungry, he would respond that I could eat him.”
She said in 2013 she reported the matter to her superiors “because I wanted them to please speak to him and warn him to stop”.
He was spoken to, but once again told her he loved her.
“I told him he had better refrain and then he stopped,” she said.
In a second statement, another female warrant officer said the same policeman had sexually assaulted her in February 2014.
“I opened a disciplinary case against him. The hearing proceeded but was postponed to August that year. To date I have not received any feedback in writing as to the outcome.”
The third woman said she too had “felt uncomfortable” around the policeman “because he would poke his fingers into my neck”.
“I would immediately reprimand him ... he would apologise and I would try as far as possible to avoid interacting with him.
“But one day he just stood up from his chair, came over to me, placed his hand on my breast and squeezed it.
“I got extremely upset, reported the incident to a senior and registered a grievance.”
She said at a “round-table meeting” the policeman apologised and she accepted it. It was explained to him that this was a dismissable offence and then the grievance was filed.
In the summons, the clerk says the policeman fondled her breasts at work in May last year, resulting in her suffering “shock, anxiety and depression”, and resulting in her having to go for counselling.
She said the police management was aware of his earlier conduct but failed to properly investigate the complaints and to put a stop to his behaviour.
They had failed to provide a safe working environment for women at the station, she said.
The Mercury