Cape Town – The African National Congress (ANC) wants Western Cape Premier Alan Winde to address so-called sex pests within the provincial government during his State of the Province Address on Tuesday.
The address will, for the first time, be hosted in the Western Coast town of Velddrift, a move the premier hoped will bring governance closer to the community.
However, the province’s ANC head, Cameron Dugmore, believes that this won’t do much to strengthen the province’s reputation for handling sexual abuse allegations.
The party has more details around investigations into suspended Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz and his four co-accused.
Dugmore said that they also wanted to understand why two other senior provincial officials facing criminal charges for sexual abuse were not dismissed during the investigation.
“We know that there have been serious allegations, in fact, the chief director of traffic, Mr Farrel Payne, is in court facing criminal charges yet he remains in his position. There are other officials as well from the Treasury, who have not been suspended while they are facing trial and this actually undermines the entire campaign against gender-based violence,” said Dugmore.
The premier came under fire following Fritz’s suspension for not disclosing the full details of the allegations.
Winde said that this was in adherence with the wishes of the complainants to remain anonymous.
Dugmor, however, said that they believed that the lack of transparency was an effort to protect the image of the DA government.
“We cannot keep quiet about this issue. Many people are saying that these allegations were known about from the days when Fritz was MEC for Social Development and it’s important that the premier and other MECs come clear during the State of the Province. At the moment there’s an attempt to manage this investigation, limit the terms of reference in order to protect the DA,” said Dugmore.
