ANC Women’s League calls for Kodwa’s suspension
Allegations against Kodwa come days after ANC spokesman Pule Mabe was cleared of sexual harassment charges laid by his former personal assistant.
ANC women’s league. Image: Tracy Lee Stark
The ANC Women’s League has come out calling for the suspension of the ANC’s acting spokesperson Zizi Kodwa pending the outcome of rape allegations.
A letter from the complainant made the rounds on social media at the weekend detailing disturbing details implicating Kodwa. The letter was also sent to the ANC’s deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, who responded to the allegations by saying the complainant needed to go to the police with her complaint.
“It is difficult because, in our understanding, it happened in a private party setting.”
The women’s league viewed this as an insult to the women’s league and was disappointed by the rape and sexual harassment allegations against leaders in the ANC who it says are expected to be championing women’s rights.
The league has called for Kodwa’s suspension, pending the outcome of an investigation into the allegations.
No case against the spokesperson has been opened and a decision is yet to be made on whether the allegations will affect Kodwa’s duties.
Kodwa maintains the allegations were a farce. He said the letter sent to Duarte “was riddled with “false accusations” and he labelled it a “dangerous attempt at political blackmail and manipulation”.
“At the outset, I deny these accusations with the contempt they deserve. I refuse to succumb to extortion and blackmail. Most importantly, I refuse to bow down to dirty tricks by cowards operating from factional dark corners, using women to fight or neutralise me.
“Most tragically, I detest the use of such serious societal maladies such as rape, sexual harassment, and women abuse to simply achieve narrow factional and political ends. It is an insult to the women of this country and the fight against women abuse.
“I wish to expose and condemn this feeble yet dangerous attempt at political blackmail and manipulation, orchestrated by elements wishing to turn our politics into a jungle, a place for apartheid-like dirty tricks to silence others.”
(Compiled by Gopolang Chawane)
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