Sex-for-jobs allegations surface in Enoch Mgijima Municipality
Carpet interviews have surfaced in Queenstown and have community members picketing outside the Chris Hani regional offices.
Allegations of sexual favours for jobs in the Enoch Mgijima Municipality in Queenstown have surfaced.
The allegations are being investigated after community members and local councillors held a picket outside the Chris Hani regional offices of the Eastern Cape department of roads and public works on Tuesday. They have alleged that sex was being requested from women in exchange for jobs within the department’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
Team One South Africa’s Geordin Hill-Lewis and Eastern Cape premier campaign spokesperson Georgina Faldtman united on Tuesday in protesting the sex-for-jobs scourge in Queenstown.
The community members and councillors also met with the metro’s regional director to bring the allegations to his attention.
The Democratic Alliance in the province said they would escalate the matter to the Eastern Cape Legislature to request urgent intervention by the department of roads and public works.
“Government must, as a matter of urgency, criminalise sex-for-jobs interviews, also known as carpet interviews. The only way we will combat the scourge of carpet interviews is if we deal swiftly and decisively with each and every perpetrator.
“We must show zero tolerance for this kind of abuse, and we must show no leniency at all for those found guilty. Perpetrators must be convicted by the law.”
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