Johannesburg - The woman who protested naked outside the Union Buildings over alleged sexual harassment is accusing the Commission for Gender Equality of dragging their feet over investigating her case.
Last year, Gugu Ncube protested outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria in her underwear, demanding that President Cyril Ramaphosa intervene over her allegations that Unisa management had ill-treated her for laying a sexual harassment complaint against her boss at its Centre for Early Childhood Education.
Ncube, wearing only her panties and a piece of cloth slung around her neck, claimed to have been victimised and dismissed from her position at the university after she reported sexual harassment. She claimed she was asked to perform sexual acts if she wanted to keep her job.
During the protest she carried a placard claiming that police were “used to intimidate, threaten and harass” her. She also wrote the name of her alleged rapist. Ncube was forcefully removed from the Union Buildings and arrested by several female officers.
She was charged with public indecency, but the case was withdrawn. The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) said they would investigate her case.
Ncube said she was waiting for the report to be released at the end of last year, but this had not been done.
“I wrote numerous emails to follow up their findings. They undertook to investigate, and now they have to release the report,” Ncube said.
She said she felt abandoned by the CGE.
“No one is interested in my matter. No other woman is going to want to speak about sexual harassment after seeing what happened to me. The CGE should be in the forefront of helping me,” she said.
But CGE spokesperson Javu Baloyi said they were not delaying releasing the report. He said a draft report on the matter was ready.
“There was a bit of back and forth because we needed to get hold of service providers to try to get further information. We are not refusing to release the report, and Gugu knows where the delay was.”