The star Online
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
November 13, 2006 Edition 3
Wendy Jasson da Costa
ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe, who has been accused of sexual harassment, says he will reveal his side of the story.
Goniwe said yesterday he wanted to put an end to all the stories about him and would convene a media briefing in his personal capacity to clarify the matter. "These are baseless allegations and malicious in the extreme."
The complainant in the matter is a parliamentary employee and the alleged incident reportedly happened at Goniwe's home in the Acacia Park parliamentary village in Cape Town last month.
ANC MP Vytjie Mentor, the acting chairperson of the ANC women's parliamentary caucus, said yesterday the woman had been placed under her "guardianship" to ensure her physical safety.
She said the woman had received a flood of hostile phone calls since she first lodged a complaint against Goniwe from "brazen" people who were not afraid to reveal who they were.
She said the common message was: "You are playing with danger; you are marring the chief whip's political career and even your (the victim's) career," said Mentor.
She added that the women's parliamentary caucus had submitted a list of recommen-dations to ANC headquarters.
A subcommittee of that caucus was due to meet again today to finalise its investigation and then report back to the caucus and the ANC.
Mentor said she had taken the complaint to the women's caucus and parliament's female presiding officers after the incident was reported to her.
Goniwe has been plagued by allegations of evading child maintenance and failing to pay massive debts, which resulted in an auction of some of his assets earlier this month. His fortunes recently declined when he drafted a document, which had to be withdrawn, in which he wanted caucus members effectively to declare their loyalty to President Thabo Mbeki.
Mentor said journalists had insinuated that she was playing a prominent role in the matter because of differences with Goniwe. However, she said she had become involved only because she had been asked to do so, and had done nothing wrong by speaking to the media.
Yesterday National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete said the matter had not been reported to her office, but to the ANC, and therefore she would not comment on the matter.
Last night, ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said party officials had not yet received an official report on the matter.
He said the ANC's national working committee would meet today, and if the report reached ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe before then, it could be placed on the agenda.
Mbulelo Goniwe