A SENIOR woman employee at the beleaguered Witzenberg Municipality has been accused of sexual harassment by a married male colleague and of hiring people to “keep tabs” on him.
The municipality’s deputy chief director for finance, André Raubenheimer, in his complaint alleged that Sandy Peres, who was married, kept winking at him whenever they were in close proximity of each other, calling him on his cellphone non-stop and “intensely locking eyes” with him.
The allegations are contained in an official complaint to the municipality’s human resources department.
This comes as the municipality's deputy mayor, Felicity Klazen, was embroiled in an alleged scandal surrounding sex shindigs in the GOOD Party's campaign run-up to the Witzenberg by-election in April. An independent investigator was appointed to investigate the matter this week.
In the Raubenheimer and Peres matter, the harassment was described as “obsessive infatuation” that spanned a period of several months from last year to April.
Raubenheimer further alleged that Peres asked people within the municipality to spy on him and eavesdropping on his conversations.
“From the day that I moved into the office with (another lady) Ms Peres has been making comments, like ‘you can shout it’s fine’, rolling her eyes, intensely staring at me, (and getting) uncomfortably close to me. I just want her to leave me alone,” read the complaint, seen by Weekend Argus.
Apparently Peres made regular visits to Raubenheimer’s office just to keep an eye on him.
“I begged and begged Ms Peres to stop and to leave me alone … she indicated that she never will … because we have a long history.”
Raubenheimer denied any history. “There was never any sexual innuendo from my side. We are both orphans, so we chatted before, but never in a romantic way.”
In November, the situation apparently intensified, according to the complaint.
“On 25 November Ms Peres took this a step further by winking at me. This behaviour is unwanted and is making me uncomfortable,” said Raubenheimer.
Despite repeated requests to stop her behaviour, Peres allegedly continued and Raubenheimer laid a complaint with HR and informed her thereof.
“Ms Peres was emotional and crying, as I informed her that she is making the working environment intolerable for me and that her behaviour is unwanted. She promised again to halt this behaviour and apologised in the presence of (colleagues), but this did not last.”
Raubenheimer said in December he received a call from an unknown number.
Peres allegedly called from her daughter’s phone.
“I did not recognise the number but answered. I recognised the voice and asked ‘Ms Peres is this you … (how can) I can be of assistance?,’ as I did not understand why she was calling me.”
Raubeheimer’s birthday was the previous day.
“She said she will get out of bed and light a candle for me. The whole day I was in her thoughts. She also prayed for me and hoped that I was spoiled and had an awesome birthday.”
On Valentine’s Day while the two had a work discussion in his office, Raubeheimer alleged that Peres wrote his and her name on the board, and “drew two hearts and what looked like flowers”.
A few other incidents reportedly occurred afterwards.
Raubenheimer complained to HR. But he claimed that his complaint was forwarded to Peres, citing that the municipal manager is a member of her family.
In a bizarre twist Peres laid a counter-charge of sexual assault against Raubenheimer with the police.
Peres refused to give the case number but said she had allegedly suffered abuse from Raubenheimer. “Please respect my rights as the victim and please respect the fact that it is very traumatic for me to undergo this in public.”
DA Mayor Hendrik Smit refused to comment on the matter.
Raubenheimer told Weekend Argus he had yet to “hear back” from HR regarding the complaint he laid.
A research agency, Columinate, recently engaged 1 000 urban South Africans to investigate the statistics behind sexual harassment in the workplace.
The study showed men were less likely to report matters. The report showed 57% of women and 47% of men claimed that the unwanted advances came from a workplace peer. And 39% of men and 22% of women kept quiet about their abuse.
About a third of men (30%) fear that no one will believe them if they make an allegation, while almost a third of women (29%) don’t report it because they don’t believe management will do anything about it.