Mashaba takes sexism battle with Tau to court
JOBURG mayor Herman Mashaba is taking his predecessor Parks Tau to court today in a bid to force him to apologise for labelling him sexist.
The matter, which has been lodged with the South Gauteng High Court, is in relation to controversial remarks that Mashaba made in 2016 when he was appointed.
He said that girlfriends of politicians were appointed to run departments by the previous ANC administration.
Also included in Mashaba’s court application are Cosatu and the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL), as he also wants them to be interdicted from accusing him of sexism.
Tau, an ANC provincial treasurer, had remarked that the city was now led by a man who believed its senior executives had “prostituted themselves” into their jobs, which Mashaba had disputed.
Cosatu and the ANCWL had also lambasted Mashaba over the remarks, accusing him of having no respect for women and implying that they were sex workers who were “compensated” with positions.
While Mashaba refuted the allegations as baseless and disgraceful comments against him, he can be seen making them in a 2016 video, where he was commenting on his election victory as mayor and indicating what he would do as he was taking over from the Tau-led ANC administration.
In the clip, Mashaba said: “As a matter of urgency I need to do a skills audit, particularly senior management positions to see whether we have got the right people running these departments, because we have seen over the years under the ANC government girlfriends of politicians run departments and so forth. That has got to come to an end.”
In his application, Mashaba has roped in prominent advocates Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and EFF national chairperson Dali Mpofu to represent him. Only Tau is opposing the application.
Tau said he was advised not to comment on the case as he was the one who was opposing it before the court, making it sub judice.
The ANC Joburg region, which he led as chairperson at the time, said it would throw its weight behind him. “ANC comrade Parks Tau has done nothing wrong. That is why we are supporting him in this court matter.
“We think Mashaba is the one who should be apologising to senior management, particularly females in the city for his unfortunate utterances,” regional spokesperson Jolidee Matongo said.
Both the Gauteng and the national secretariat of Cosatu said their lawyers had not received any notice from Mashaba.
Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said while the federation would not participate in opposing today’s application, it would not apologise to Mashaba.
“We are not aware of his application because we have not been served with any papers. We hope he is really not wasting the municipality’s money.
“He has a right to take us to court but we cannot apologise for something he said,” Ntshalintshali said.
ANCWL’s Toko Xasa could not be reached for comment.