COSATU demands action on sexual harassment allegations
The Congress of South African Trade Unions is concerned by serious allegations of sexual harassment against Simon Zulu, the husband of the Deputy Minister of Public Works, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu. He was brought into the Department as an aide to his wife, who is partially blind.
The Sunday Independent reports that an investigation been launched into allegations by a staff member in his wife's office that he threatened to fire her if she did not have sex with him.
The complainant alleges that Zulu sent her unsavoury and suggestive SMSs while he was on a trip to Vienna in July and later threatened her with expulsion if she did not have a sexual relationship with him. He even told her the deputy minister would not believe her allegations as "he had done it before with others".
The complainant notified the deputy minister on 24 July, but Bogopane-Zulu told her to encourage her husband by kissing him, allowing him into her room on trips and even telling him she loved him so that she could tape it. She said she had suspected her husband, and she had noticed he often called the woman at night, even leaving their bedroom to make a call.
The allegations of sexual harassment she lodged were ignored for nearly four months - despite her informing Mathuto Motumi, the director in the deputy minister's office, and former Public Works minister Geoff Doidge. Motumi laughed off the allegations and told her to resign, stating that she could not cope with the pressures in the office.
In a letter to the Director General Sxa Dongwana, the complainant said: "This is all against my beliefs and I did not get the protection I was looking for from the deputy minister. After all these incidents I don't feel safe because of the statement that he will make my life miserable as he knows my whereabouts."
Meanwhile the DG has put the woman on special leave, pending the completion of the investigation, while Zulu is still working.
COSATU is disgusted that the deputy minister is employing her husband. There can be no possible justification for such an appointment.
The federation also demands to know why the complainant has been given special leave and made to feel she was wrong to report the matter, whilst the alleged perpetrator is being allowed to continue working.
For as long as women end up being made to suffer for reporting cases of rape and sexual harassment we will not win the battle against their abuse.
COSATU calls for the immediate reinstatement of the alleged victim, the suspension of the alleged perpetrator and for an immediate impartial investigation into the allegations.
Statement issued by Patrick Craven, COSATU national spokesperson, November 7 2010
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