University head goes to court over sex claims

University of Venda vicechancellor Peter Amunga Mbati wants a court to set aside a report by the Commission for Gender Equality that he alleges “irrationally” found he sexually harassed axed dean Thidziambi Phendla.

Mbati and the university’s council have taken the commission to the high court over the investigative report it released in December last year.

The application is to be heard on October 12 in Johannesburg. Mbati argues the commission failed to investigate complaints Phendla brought to it, yet “in the report, the commission found that I had sexually harassed one of my employees … Phendla”.

Arguing that the report is “defective” under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, he wants its findings reviewed and set aside. It will cause damage to his reputation and that of the university while it stands, he says in his affidavit.

In February, City Press published an article headlined “Professor ‘sexually harassed’ for years”. “It reports at length on the report’s findings. There is also a photograph of me,” Mbati said. Commission chief executive Keketso Maema has asked the court to dismiss Mbati’s application with costs. She argues that he should not have brought the application to court but should first have tried to exhaust all internal remedies.

Maema also maintains that Mbati’s application misrepresents the commission’s findings, and denies that it found he had sexually harassed Phendla.

The commission found that the university had failed to apply its sexual harassment policy when Phendla brought complaints against Mbati, says Maema.

“It is evident that what the applicants seek to elevate as findings are, in fact, not the main findings, as apparent from the investigative report,” Maema said.

“The main finding in the investigative report is that the applicants failed to observe their sexual harassment policy and to give effect to all the processes [that] are entailed in the sexual harassment policy. That is the core and essence of the investigative report.”

The probe included interviews with Mbati and a number of the university’s employees, Maema said. “A complaint was received and duly investigated and an investigative report compiled.”

Phendla, the former dean of the university’s education school, filed a complaint with the commission in May 2012, after losing faith in how the university council handled her claims that Mbati sexually harassed her and coerced her into a sexual relationship.

But in 2011 she was dismissed over fraud and corruption charges, which she denied, after which she says the council dragged its feet about subjecting Mbati to a hearing.