Politicians have called for the axing of Norman Mashabane, South Africa's ambassador to Indonesia, after he was found guilty - for the second time - on sexual harassment charges at an internal disciplinary hearing.
The verdict was handed to the diplomat in Pretoria on Monday, according to an official from the department of foreign affairs.
The official confirmed that a guilty verdict had been given by Nkosi Mxoli, the presiding officer; however, the department was awaiting a report containing reasons for the decision.
Mashabane has until on Monday to appeal.
On Friday, Ronnie Mamoepa, the spokesperson for the department of foreign affairs, said his department had not received news of the verdict and was still waiting for a report with the decision and recommendations.
The ambassador's appeal against the first sexual harassment charge on which he was found guilty in December 2001 has yet to be heard. However, the official interviewed by The Sunday Independent said the appeal could be decided only by the minister of foreign affairs, who had been given all the facts in this case.
Anton Lourens, the general secretary of the Public Servants' Association, said he was aware of the verdict, but had no idea of the punishment.
"We hope for a penalty that matches the transgression, bearing in mind that this is the second time the ambassador has been charged with sexual harassment," he said.
Lourens said that while the department took the matter seriously by investigating the charge against Mashabane, it was unfair that the complainant, represented by the association, had been temporarily transferred from her post in Jakarta to the embassy in Korea.
"She's being put up in a hotel at huge cost to the department when the easier way out would have been to suspend the ambassador until the investigation was complete."
Lourens said that soon after the complainant had been transferred, Mashabane has assembled staff at the embassy and allegedly told them he would "never mix with a white woman" and that only President Thabo Mbeki, who appointed him, could remove him.
The National Health and Allied Workers Union said it would abide by the outcome of the hearing.
Politicians, however, were demanding immediate action against the diplomat from the foreign affairs minister.
Patricia de Lille, the leader of the Independent Democrats, said it was surprising that Mashabane had been kept in the post despite the seriousness of the claims against him.
"One would have thought Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma , as a woman, would have been more sensitive to abuse of women, yet this seems normal to her. Mashabane is not fit to represent our country, he is an embarrassment," she said.
Sandra Botha of the Democratic Alliance said if the appeal in the first case had been acted upon swiftly, the second incident would have not occurred. "The minister should explain why he's hung onto power when the allegations against him are so serious. We have wonderful laws and institutions to protect women, but when it comes to the crunch, it is sad that a woman has let us down with such a limp response to such a serious transgression."
Botha said she would go to the public protector to obtain answers from Dlamini-Zuma about the lack of action against the ambassador.
Botha has also written to the Commission on Gender Equality and asked parliament to summon the foreign affairs director-general to explain the circumstances under which Mashabane was appointed and allowed to remain in the post.
Mashabane was appointed as South African ambassador to Indonesia by Mbeki in 2001.
Earlier this year the Sunday Independent obtained the charge sheet in the first sexual harassment case against the ambassador. Mashabane was accused by several employees of a variety of sexual harassment charges between March and September 2001.
The charge sheet claimed he allegedly engaged in an explicit sexual act with a woman in the back seat of a chauffeur-driven car, patted a domestic worker on the buttocks while she was doing the dishes and showed two embassy staff members pictures of a couple having sex and told them that "they had to learn" and that he (Mashabane) was a good teacher.
One another occasion, a staff member claimed he molested her in the embassy lift. In a separate incident with the same staff member, it was alleged that during a meeting with the African heads of mission at the Mozambican embassy, Mashabane asked her to accompany him as he did not know the way.
On the way, he allegedly told her "women could become excited if men touched their breasts".
The ambassador allegedly added that she need not be afraid of him as he would "not do it in the lift but find a time and place that was more comfortable".
The ambassador - whose wife is the high commissioner to India - was also accused of requesting a domestic employee to ask a new member of the cleaning staff "to service" him and he allegedly showed her an impolite finger sign describing his intentions.
The allegations were handed over to the department of foreign affairs and Mashabane was found guilty on 21 counts of sexual harassment in December 2001. However, he was allowed to remain in his post pending an appeal. In June he was accused of harassment again.