DA sexual harassment case begins
The party is accused of shielding a councillor who is also implicated in R1.2m worth of graft
The sexual harassment case against a senior Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, who seems to have been protected by the party after being implicated in corruption worth R1.2-million, has finally made it to court.
It emerged at the high court in Johannesburg on Friday 15 October that the DA could have shielded “predatory sex fiend” Shadow Shabangu, the party’s Ekurhuleni council caucus chairperson, when he was accused of sexual harassment by his colleague, Thina Bambeni.
Her main contention is that the internal process that cleared Shabangu of sexual harassment was flawed because the head of the DA’S Gauteng disciplinary committee, Mervyn Cirota, who set up the hearing’s panel and is an attorney, was also Shabangu’s personal lawyer.
The saga began in July 2018 when Bambeni laid a sexual harassment complaint against Shabangu for a series of lewd comments she says he made, including asking for her hotel room number whenever the Ekurhuleni DA caucus went on work trips.
Bambeni, who labelled Shabangu a “predatory sex fiend” in her papers before court, also alleged that he had admitted during his internal hearing to asking for hotel room numbers, and saw nothing wrong with this. Bambeni is a high court attorney, and is representing herself against the DA.
In her papers, Bambeni said Shabangu made the “admission of verbally taunting female councilors to give out their hotel room numbers when the caucus travelled to strategic planning excursions, and specifically admitting that he [directed] this taunt for a hotel room number at me”.
“A hotel room is a bedroom with an en-suite bathroom. A male person demanding to know the hotel room of a female who has no close relation to him is verbal sexual harassment
as he is in fact harassing her to invite him to her bedroom,” she said.
Bambeni contended that the process of clearing Shabangu was flawed and there were no reasonable prospects that Cirota would ensure a fair process against his client.
In an affidavit filed before court on behalf of the DA, Cirota denied he was Shabangu’s personal attorney, saying that was “an untruth that councillor Bambeni had repeated numerous times”.
“The truth is that I have only represented councillor Shabangu once, when I represented some of the respondents [from the DA] in some of Ms Bambeni’s protection order applications, including councillor Shabangu and only at the first hearing [in 2019],” reads Cirota’s affidavit.
“I acted for the respondents because the first set of protection order applications was brought on an extremely urgent basis and, given my knowledge of the relevant facts, I could represent the respondents without much consultation.”
The DA’S attorney Piet Olivier reiterated in court on Friday that Cirota
was not Shabangu’s personal attorney and had acted for him only once. But acting Judge Norman Manoim said Olivier’s response “was not very convincing”.
“He [Cirota] may not be the personal attorney [of Shabangu], but he got involved in the litigation representing Mr Shabangu very much in relation to these events [of sexual harassment],” the judge said.
Olivier said everyone involved in this matter was a member of the same political organisation and Manoim could not withdraw Cirota from these proceedings “merely because the parties have some sort of relationship”.
“The point is they are all in a political party; they all know each other,” Olivier said.
Manoim continued to dispute this, emphasising that the conflict of Cirota representing Shabangu was obvious.
“[Cirota] was there in court representing [Shabangu] in relation to these matters. If [Cirota] had sat on the disciplinary inquiry, [there] would probably be a good reason to ask him to recuse himself.
“But if he wasn’t responsible for any of the [disciplinary panel] appointments, then it doesn’t matter whether he was the attorney or not the attorney. That’s really what I am getting at,” the judge said.
Olivier answered that the panel was convened by Michael Shackleton, who serves as a DA member of the Gauteng legislature.
But Bambeni, in her papers, disputed Olivier’s assertion, showing that in the July 2018 charge sheet against Shabangu, Shackleton had signed his name as the registrar (a more junior position) and not a convenor.
Bambeni further argued, after reading extensively from the DA’S constitution on disciplinary hearing, that registrars were appointed by provincial disciplinary heads — in
‘A male demanding to know the hotel room of a female who has no relation to him is verbal sexual harassment’
other words, Cirota’s position — and that Shackleton effectively worked on Cirota’s instructions.
“Mr Shackelton’s role is a registrar. A registrar in any sphere — be it in a court system as well as the DA internal processes — is an administrative position.
“Mr Shackleton worked under instruction from Mr Cirota. Mr Shackelton, as a registrar of the provincial disciplinary committee, didn’t make his own decisions. He took instructions and orders from Mr Cirota,” Bambeni argued.
Manoim reserved judgment, without giving the date on which he will deliver his ruling.
Charges have also been laid against Shabangu by Ekurhuleni council speaker Patricia Kumalo after the DA councillor was found in a forensic investigation to have received a more than R1.2-million “kickback” for doing work he was not qualified for, or should have done for free as an elected representative.
According to the report, a few weeks after the 2016 local government elections and just over a year after the commencement of the construction of the Springs Mall, Shabangu signed a consultancy deal with Blue Crane Eco Mall. The mall was opened in March 2017.
The report concluded that Shabangu had abused his position as a councillor to attain a “consultancy fee” for an assignment for which he was not qualified.
It held that Shabangu’s contract and receipt of the payments put him in a conflicted position and was in contravention of section 4 of the Prevention of Corrupt Activities Act in that he accepted payment in return for representing Blue Crane’s interests in his ward.
Shabangu previously told the Mail & Guardian that he knew nothing about the report, save for the fact that it was discussed in council.
Paul Gerard, from Flanagan & Gerard Property Development Investments, who spoke on behalf of the mall, said Shabangu “was contracted as a community liaison officer”.
“The councillor was paid for all the duties that he performed in the mall, which are detailed in the contract with the councillor,” Gerard said, without elaborating on what was entailed in the contract.