Cape Town - Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo has defended himself after the ANC’s Integrity Commission ordered him to step down from his position after unleashing the Hawks on his pregnant mistress.
Masondo, who is a member of the governing party’s powerful national executive committee, has told the commission that he reported the matter to the Hawks after the woman harassed and tormented his family including his wife, sister, brother and brother-in-law.
He said the woman's harassment and torments were intensely focused on his wife.
“The harassment included death threats and threats to the safety of my children. [The woman] threatened that she will not stop until I acceded to her demands for money amongst other things,” Masondo wrote to ANC veteran George Mashamba, the chairperson of the party’s Integrity Commission.
According to Masondo, it was not an easy decision to report the matter to the police but he acted on his lawyer’s advice that the Hawks was the legally appropriate institution responsible for crimes such as extortion.
He said he was advised to report the matter in his personal capacity and that as a public official he has more responsibility to report the matter to the Hawks.
Masondo also claimed that his failure to report his mistress knowing that she allegedly committed an unlawful act would make him guilty of an offence.
He approached the Commission for Gender Equality because he felt he should account for his actions and seek guidance.
Masondo also approached the Young Communist League, of which he was once national chairperson, the ANC Women’s League and the ANC’s OR Tambo Political School’s social and ethics board committee to explain his actions and seek counsel.
He is the principal of the school and told the committee to take up the matter of him relinquishing the position with the institution’s board.
The commission asked Masondo to voluntarily step aside from his position at the political school and as deputy minister.
“It would stand you in very good stead were you to consider this option,” Mashamba told Masondo.
Political Bureau