Pretoria - A protest against alleged sexual harassment at Tshwane House was held by the ANC Women’s Caucus where they will handover a memorandum of grievances to the mayor Randall Williams against a senior official in the metro.
This as the metro confirmed that it had received two complaints of alleged sexual harassment against one of its senior officials, with one of the victims also opening a case of alleged crimen injuria against the official.
Councillor Nozipho Makeke said they would like to urge the mayor to prioritise the matter.
“We would also like to urge the City to act swiftly on the matters of GBV as it is a scourge engulfing society. As the ANC Women’s Caucus we would like to reiterate our firm stance on matters regarding gender based violence.”
She said the city must also deal with all forms of sexual harassment in the workplace and speed up the disciplinary process for immediate suspension of the senior manager in question.
“By so doing, the city would be making sure that there is a conducive environment for female employees.”
She said as the ANC Women’s Caucus they would also like to call into question the nonchalant manner in which the mayor reacted to the issue of the allegations against the senior manager, when the matter was raised in the last council sitting in November.
“He has shown scant regard to the issues of gender-based violence and displayed the highest levels of ignorance regarding matters at hand, thus relegating it to a mere issue of sexual harassment at work and subjecting it to a slow process of investigation,” said Makeke.
South African Municipal Workers Union regional secretary Mpho Tladinyane reiterated taking the issue seriously.
“Noting the seriousness of the allegation and the position of power occupied by the official, the city cannot ignore the allegations.”
“On Friday, November 28 2020 some members allege that there is another case of sexual harassment which was not reported to the office of the city Mmanager. It is unfortunate that these allegations are raised or happen during the 16 days of activism and at a time when the Country is fighting the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide.”
He said the leadership of the city has a responsibility to ensure that a safe working environment free of abuse is created in the workplace.
Pretoria News