The City Press report “Fransman faces the axe”

Sunday, 10 July 2016, at 14h00

It is with emphatic appal that I have learned today from the media some of the content of the apparent findings of the ANC’s Integrity Committee in the matter of an unsubstantiated “sexual harassment” complaint against me, without having received any notification whatsoever from the committee myself.

Such outrageous breach of ANC protocol and principle clearly brings the ANC into disrepute and seriously tarnishes the image of the ANC.

I didn't expect this from an internal structure of the organization that is supposed to uphold the organizational protocols.

Regrettably reliant solely on media reports, the apparent finding that my accuser’s “evidence is of a cogent nature and more likely to be true than not” speaks directly to the merit of the matter, in flagrant disregard of the integrity committee's clarion initial and continuing stance that merit be “a matter for the courts to decide.”

I want to place on record that at the beginning of February the Integrity Committee has written to me saying that they cannot deal with the merits of the allegations.

I have already cautioned the Integrity Committee in writing on April 19 that its workings had been compromised by political expediency, orchestrated by factions having previously - and continuously - failed to effect my political demise.

I continue to submit to the leadership of the ANC and to the structures of the organisation, as is evident from my voluntary stepping aside to facilitate an expeditious conclusion, sadly still outstanding after several months. I have committed to working with the integrity committee and other institutions to bring this matter to an expeditious conclusion.

I have an inviolable right, as do all South Africans by constitutional dictate, to innocence until proven guilty, and I emphasise that the committee's apparent finding is unquestionably rooted exclusively in some verdict on merit, and the commission’s apparent recommendation is an egregious violation of my basic human rights.

I continue to refrain as best as I can guard against a ravenous media onslaught, in the ongoing absence of any organisational protection or assistance, from commenting upon my accuser or her accusal; a decision I am preserving even under the utmost provocation at this time, in deference to both natural justice, and the integrity of the ANC.

Since February I have not received any substantial communication from the Integrity Committee, especially not on its findings, as they have promised they would deliver on completion.

I am obliged therefore to now call upon the integrity committee to forthwith provide me with its full findings, in service of administrative justice.

Statement issued by ANC Western Cape leader, Marius Fransman, 10 July 2016