The South African Federation of Trade unions (SAFTU) notes the Eastern Cape provincial government’s decision to place the Head of Department for Public Works and Infrastructure, Thandolwethu Manda, on leave pending an investigation into his alleged sexual harassment of a former employee in the department.
The decision of the Eastern Cape provincial government follows an allegation by a former employee who at the time of the alleged sexual harassment was in the provincial government’s employ. The female former employee, who had been employed by the department in an administrative function in one of the departments from the 1st of July 20219 to 30 May 2021, had to resign from her job after she was subject to sexual harassment from her boss.
The Eastern Cape premier, Mr Oscar Mabuyane, has assembled an investigating panel of what he calls ‘prominent persons’ in the department to investigate the allegations the female former employee has brought against her former boss. Premier Mabuyane further urged all who have experienced this kind of abuse to report it to the police so that perpetrators are held accountable by the criminal justice system.
We note the swift action by the provincial government in placing the alleged perpetrator on leave and constituting a fact-finding panel. This decisive action by the Eastern Cape provincial government is all the more significant given that Gender Based Violence is on the rise in South Africa and women, in particular, continue to be subject to violence on the basis their gender.
By some conservative estimates 115 rapes occur per day in South Africa. Revolting as this statistic is, it certainly is an understatement of the problem given the underreporting endemic in cases of this nature.
In its report released In March 2024, the Commission for Gender Equality(CGE) points out that between April 2022 and March 2023, there have been 53,498 sexual offences – with rape accounting for a staggering 42, 780 of those cases. These figures, as argued above, do not capture the full extent of the GBV crisis when underreporting is taken into account. On this score, the CGE report laments the unreliability of the data, which rests on administrate data and household surveys. On the former method, the major problem with the South African Police Services, which is heavily relied on for administrative data, does not reflect adequately information on gender when it captures its data.
The fear of secondary victimisation, distrust of the criminal justice system, fear of the being disbelieved, the social stigma that attaches to reporting rape cases and so on, presents another difficulty for data collection and thus make it difficult to capture severity of the GVB crisis in its fullest.
GBV is not a women’s issue – neither is it a responsibility to be borne squarely and solely by women’s shoulders. No, GBV is a societal issue with well-known social and economic detrimental consequences. Put differently, not only is GBV unacceptable and repugnant from a purely human rights and ethical perspective, but it is also has awful societal and economic outcomes. There are medical costs which accrue to the whole of society as victims of GBV seek medical attention, in addition to the costs of seeking the justice through the criminal justice system for the reported cases. Further, there are social cost in that victims GBV are often limited from effectively participating in society and discharging their social duties. This can take the form negative educational outcomes and loss of household incomes.
We urge the panel constituted by the premier of Eastern Cape to swiftly conduct and conclude its investigation into the alleged sexual harassment, so that the complainant may find closure.
