Dogged by inconsistency

ANC decision-making seems to lack consistency in certain cases. Last weekend’s media reports that ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe was cleared by a grievance panel of sexual harassment charges came as no surprise.

This is because it appointed a grievance panel headed by two national executive committee members although Mabe is also on the NEC. Sexual harassment is a serious allegation and the ANC has formal structures to deal with allegations against its members, including a national spokesperson.

Between 2006 and 2007 then chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe was suspended for five years for the same charge of sexually harassing junior staff. His formal disciplinary hearing was chaired by the late Kader Asmal on the eve of the Eastern Cape provincial conference, when Goniwe was nominated by many branches to take over as provincial secretary.

Again, former ANC provincial chairperson Marius Fransman was suspended for five years by the integrity committee, another formal structure of the ANC established to investigate allegations against its members.

But now the same ANC deviated from its own principle, placing Mabe on special leave and establishing a grievance panel headed by NEC members instead of veterans or elders who no longer attend NEC meetings.

– Thando Noel Witbooi, Former Sasco and ANCYL Member