Durban – The KwaZulu-Natal cooperative governance and traditional affairs (cogta) portfolio committee chairperson has expressed outrage at rape allegations levelled against an IFP councillor in the Alfred Duma Local Municipality.
The IFP councillor is facing criminal charges after he allegedly used a month-to-month contract to get sex from women desperate to keep their jobs. One of the women – who claimed to have had sex with an IFP councillor in Alfred Duma Local Municipality – has laid charges of rape against him.
The portfolio committee said that cogta chairperson Zinhle Cele was “deeply shocked and outraged” by serious allegations of rape levelled against a senior IFP councillor in the municipality, who has been accused by several women contract employees of luring them to have sex with him in exchange for keeping their jobs.
“As the cogta portfolio committee responsible for playing an oversight role over municipalities in KZN including clean governance, we are deeply shocked by these serious allegations levelled against the Alfred Duma Municipality councillor.
“We call upon our Cogta MEC Bongi Sithole-Moloi to take decisive action and launch a full and independent investigation into these allegations without further delay… We cannot tolerate the abuse of vulnerable women by a sex pest who masquerades as a public representative,” Cele said.
The committee said that the sex for jobs scandal was reported in weekend newspapers where shocking claims were made by women contract employees in the municipality who claim to have been forced by a councillor to have sex with him in exchange for keeping their jobs in the municipality. The women also claim that the councillor had promised them permanent jobs if they continued to sleep with him. One of the women has since laid a criminal charge of rape against the councillor.
Media reports also revealed that more desperate women in the municipality have fallen victim to the same councillor, who allegedly demanded sexual favours in exchange for giving them permanent employment. The victims are coming forward to open rape cases against the councillor.
Meanwhile, the IFP has suspended the AbaQulusi Local Municipality mayor and the councillor for making questionable statements, and after accusations of sex for jobs.
Last week, in a recording AbaQulusi mayor Mncedisi Maphisa is heard allegedly telling staff to fire an employee. He also allegedly makes sexual remarks about female workers in the municipality, reducing them to his sexual subjects.
IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said its national executive committee (NEC) on Monday considered these latest developments and resolved as follows:
∎ The AbaQulusi mayor is suspended from the party with immediate effect and is directed to take leave from his municipal duties with immediate effect.
∎ The AbaQulusi deputy mayor is to act as mayor with immediate effect.
∎ The Alfred Duma councillor implicated in the audio clip is suspended with immediate effect from the party, and is directed to take leave as a councillor with immediate effect.
∎ The Alfred Duma speaker is directed to ensure that service delivery is not adversely impacted in the affected ward.
∎ The affected councillors are due to appear before the IFP’s NEC at a special meeting scheduled to sit no later than March 5.
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Daily News