ANC confirms Kodwa and Mabe are ‘stepping aside’ as spokesmen

Duarte had advised the woman that the ANC “does not have the capacity to [investigate] that kind of thing”.

“The allegation is this happened in a private function, so we really cannot go beyond the advice that we have given her at this time. Finding the relevant facts is the work of the criminal justice system.”

Last week Mabe was meant to have been reinstated as the party’s spokesman after an internal inquiry found him not guilty of sexual harassment. His personal assistant, Kgoerano Kekana, however, subsequently expressed deep dissatisfaction at both the way the inquiry had been conducted and its findings.

She had earlier accused the ANC’s grievance panel of demonstrating “toxic masculinity, misogyny, and patriarchy”, finding it insulting that Mabe had theorised her complaint was politically motivated.

Kekana said only one of the eight witnesses who would have corroborated her accusation that she had been repeatedly harassed by Mabe was called before the panel.

“Incredibly, I was not informed when this one witness was called and I thus have no knowledge of what she said. The report merely states her name but nothing about her evidence,” Kekana said.

“Not only is this an affront towards women, it gives further courage to abusive men to bully female subordinates,” she said.

Mabe released a statement on Tuesday that stated “for the record, at the time of issuing this public statement, such a matter (his removal) had not been brought to my attention”.

He said he had subjected himself to all the party’s internal processes and had maintained his innocence throughout, which he continued to do.

“The ANC subsequently issued a statement clearing me of any acts of sexual harassment.

“Soon afterwards, the complainant embarked on a door-to-door to various media houses to publicly state her displeasure about a process initiated at her own request. It is understandable for a matter such as this to attract media attention because sexual harassment is a serious matter and leaders are expected to be exemplary at all material times.

“As an advocate of press freedom myself, I will never take issue with journalists for doing their work, especially in our country where some amongst us are ‘newsroom agents’ and probably conduct teleconferences with news desks before diary meetings – a hard reality.”

He said he had restrained himself from making any public statements, but now had to speak to protect himself and his family from further humiliation.

“I have never sexually harassed anyone and will subject myself even to the highest court in the land to prove my innocence.

“I will not allow my name to be used to pursue nefarious agendas whose sole motive is character assassination. Even during the hearing, I have been available to answer every question that might have arisen.

“For the sake of our society and given the magnitude and seriousness of allegations of sexual harassment, I will be writing to the [ANC] to request that they make the transcripts of the grievance panel proceedings in the form of oral and written evidence available for public consumption.

“I have avoided to fall for conspiracy theories when the rumour mill suggested that some of our members in our [national executive committee] will reject the outcomes of the hearing. It did bother me because the truth will never change.

“If the latest media leaks are anything to go by, then the latest developments are interesting.

“I have always had faith in my organisational leadership structures to always act rationally, objectively and fairly.”

He said he’d asked the ANC to extend his leave so he could recover from the “strain” of the whole episode.

Mabe also thanked his church in Soweto for the support and counselling he’d been given.