Fransman to get a chance to explain
TOP WESTERN Cape ANC officials met yesterday to discuss sexual harassment allegations made against provincial chairman Marius Fransman, but no decision was made on whether to suspend him.
The party’s provincial spokesman, Jabu Mfusi, said yesterday’s meeting was the first official meeting for the year.
The sexual harassment allegations were on the agenda along with other issues, including education and the ANC rally to take place on Saturday.
Mfusi said: “This is the first time we are meeting organisationally as officials to hear comrade Marius’s side as to what transpired during that period.”
He said the party’s top officials were not in a position to suspend Fransman. However, they were able to charge him. “Top officials can’t do anything really; the only power they have is to charge a person. Only the provincial executive committee (PEC) and the full structure can take such a decision.”
The Western Cape PEC is still to set a date for a meeting to discuss the sexual harassment allegations.
The allegation that Fransman sexually assaulted a 20-year-old employee en route to the party’s 104th birthday celebrations last week emerged on Friday.
Reports suggested the woman, who had been working at a wine estate, was offered a job by Fransman as his personal assistant and hired two days before his trip to Rustenburg ahead of the ANC birthday celebrations.
A Sunday newspaper disclosed information purporting to be from the docket, which stated that the first incident of alleged sexual harassment occurred in the car on the way to the venue. The second allegedly occurred in a hotel room in Kimberley.
Yesterday, Fransman, who attended the top officials’ meeting held at Sahara House, did not comment on the allegations. But on Sunday, he told The Star’s sister paper, the Cape Argus, there were reports that he had paid the woman a R50 000 bribe to keep quiet.
“It is not a nice thing to happen to anyone but we live in a democracy where anyone can get up and actually make any allegations at any police station. Whether it is true of not is a different matter,” he said at the time.
We live in a democracy where anyone can make allegations