Bhisho -Allegations that legislature officials in Bhisho demanded sex from women interns in exchange for jobs will be investigated, the Eastern Cape government said on Friday.
The allegations surprised provincial government leaders as there was no record of reports made to relevant state institutions or law enforcement agencies, spokeswoman Mandisa Titi said in a statement.
“However... the director general, as head of the provincial administration, has decided to institute an inquiry into these allegations.”
A team of four officials would be led by safety and liaison department head Ngaka Mosehana.
The inquiry would run from June 17 to July 11.
“Both the alleged perpetrators and the alleged victims will not be victimised as a result of their participation in this process,” Titi said.
The Herald newspaper reported last Tuesday that some officials in the provincial legislature were implicated in a sex-for-jobs scandal. The allegations surfaced in the legislature last month.
The contracts of interns who refused were allegedly not renewed.
The newspaper reported that the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) had asked legislature speaker Noxolo Kiviet to investigate.
The Daily Dispatch reported on Wednesday that local government and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa had called on victims of the scandal to come forward.
Nehawu claimed in a memo that superintendent general Stanley Khanyile was “implicated in the intended ignorance of recruitment policy and employing foreigners and also not implementing the employment equity policy,” the Daily Dispatch reported.
Xasa told the paper that he and the union had agreed that no action could be taken against Khanyile until the union provided proof of the allegations.
Sapa