Cape Town -The ANC reportedly offered the young woman at the centre of a damning sexual harassment claim against Marius Fransman, the embattled Western Cape ANC chairman, a full bursary to continue her studies.
On Friday, it emerged that “someone in the inner-circle” of the ANC offered 21-year-old Louisa Wynand the bursary just after a meeting of the ANC’s integrity commission.
“Due to the ongoing investigation, we're not at liberty to disclose any further details of the offer,” said Gavin Prins, her spokesman, on Friday night.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Wynand, who finished school in 2013, was forced to halt her studies in culture and language at Stellenbosch University because of financial constraints.
Fransman denied having anything to do with the bursary offer, while the party challenged Wynand, who briefly worked for Fransman as part of a hospitality project he was working on, to substantiate her allegations. “The person who is alleging this must come out and prove it,” said Khusela Sangoni, ANC spokeswoman.
Wynand, from Stellenbosch, laid sexual harassment charges against Fransman at Sun City on January 6. This week, several ostensibly flirtatious WhatsApp messages from Fransman to Wynand in January were exposed in the Daily Maverick.
This included one in which he reportedly suggested she must dress “sensual”. In another, he wrote to her: “Forgot to ask. Pl don’t tell your bf you working fr me. Don’t need jealous guys around.”
She answered: “He’s not that type and I’ll handle my personal life very discreetly, I don’t mix business with pleasure either, so don’t worry, I know how to handle it.”
To this, Fransman replied: “Good, but hey will there will be pleasure in business”.
Fransman has dug in his heels over efforts to get him to comment on the messages, saying he would not be drawn to discuss the issue in the public domain. “It’s only the institutions authorised by law which can determine the veracity of those allegations.”
Prins said Wynand was coping under the circumstances. “She is not working at the moment. She is looking for a job. However, it is challenging because she is constantly in the spotlight.
“She is quite a brave woman and holding up nicely. She has a brilliant support structure at home with her family being very hands-on in helping her make the right decisions but also just being there for her for emotional support.”
It is understood that the WhatsApp messages form part of the case being investigated by authorities in the Northern Cape and the North West.
Fransman said that as an official of the ANC, and a public representative, he would not be “suckered” into discussing the matter. “I will not undermine either the SAPS or the National Prosecuting Authority by allowing myself to be drawn into a public discussion of matters which must be dealt with by these institutions, which are constitutionally mandated to investigate and make determinations on whether a case warrants prosecution.”
He was adamant he had not broken “any law”, and would be guided only “by the decisions of the authorities investigating the allegations of my accuser”.
Wynand had travelled to Rustenburg with Fransman and two others to attend the ANC’s 104th anniversary celebrations in January. In her statement to police, she alleged she had been forced to share a double bed with Fransman in a Kimberley hotel, where he held her “in a tight grip, fondled and touched her” and that he had harassed her in a vehicle en route to Rustenburg.
It is understood that the matter was investigated by police in the North West and the Northern Cape, and late last month the NPA’s North West office announced that they had declined to prosecute “due to lack of evidence”.
But Abraham Botha, the director of public prosecutions in the Northern Cape, still has to make a determination on how to proceed. The NPA said its Northern Cape office would make a determination after certain matters had been finalised.
Luvuyo Mfaku, the NPA’s national spokesman, said Botha had referred the docket to the investigating officer “for issues he has raised to be investigated”. “Once the docket is returned, he will make a decision on whether to prosecute,” Mfaku said.
Weekend Argus