DA sex-pest fined R20k for abusing junior staffer

CONTROVERSIAL DA MPL Edmund van Vuuren has been slapped with a R20 000 fine for sexually harassing a 25-year-old junior staffer in the Eastern Cape legislature last year.

Van Vuuren has also been ordered to resign as DA chief whip in the legislature – and to attend a rehabilitation programme which will teach him how to relate to women in an acceptable manner.

He had appealed his guilty verdict and the sanction last year, citing procedural flaws in the disciplinary process.

Yesterday, DA federal executive chairman James Selfe said all but one of his appeals were dismissed.

Van Vuuren’s appeal against the penalty to expel him from the party was upheld and the new penalty – the R20 000 fine – was imposed.

Selfe said: “He needs to resign as the chief whip of the Eastern Cape legislature and was fined R20 000, payable within three months.”

Three charges were levelled against Van Vuuren, but the panel of the Federal Legal Commission (FLC) found him guilty on one count.

Initially, the FLC recommended he be suspended but the federal executive committee felt the sentence was lenient and decided to expel him from the party.

He was given 10 days to appeal the decision, which he did.

The full sanction reads: “Termination of membership, suspended for the current term of office, subject to Mr van Vuuren not being found guilty of a similar offence.”

The complainant had said that on May 8, during a telephone conversation, Van Vuuren made inappropriate comments. Van Vuuren had offered to stand in for her husband and satisfy her sexually “if necessary”.

In their finding, the FLC panel wrote: “The panel finds on a balance of probabilities that the charged member did make comments of an unacceptable nature to the complainant in the telephone call on May 8.

“His subsequent WhatsApp apology and telephone call, in which he admits to making unacceptable, hurtful comments and the complainant’s immediate reaction and report of the call push the balance of probability [towards] the version of the complainant.”

The Dispatch understands the complainant was informed of the new penalty by DA caucus leader in Bhisho, Bobby Stevenson, last week.