Suspended DA councillor loses court bid to be reinstated

Suspended Democratic Alliance (DA) Ekurhuleni councillor Thina Bambeni has lost her high court bid to be reinstated.

She was ousted over laying what her party has since labelled a false complaint of sexual harassment against then council caucus chair Shadow Shabangu.

In July 2018, Bambeni lodged an internal complaint with the party alleging Shabangu had sexually harassed her on multiple occasions, including at a party conference at a hotel during which, she said, he had asked for her room number.

Mediation was initially suggested but this was rejected by both parties and so a panel was convened to investigate the complaint.

The panel interviewed various witnesses but according to the DA, none of them confirmed Bambeni’s complaint.
Shabangu was also interviewed and apparently admitted to having made remarks about room numbers at the party conference but insisted these were nothing more than friendly banter.

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Ultimately, the panel concluded there was no evidence to back up the complaint. It was then sent to the DA’s federal legal commission (FLC), which arrived at the same conclusion.

Bambeni wound up being charged with laying a false complaint, though, and was suspended. In court, she argued her complaint had not been properly dealt with nor handled with the requisite sensitivity and that the DA was tone deaf when it came to sexual harassment, emphasising that Shabangu was an older man and senior to her in the party.

The DA, however, maintained Bambeni had exaggerated the facts and criticised her handling of the matter.

High Court in Johannesburg Judge Norman Manoim said in his ruling on Tuesday that it wasn’t necessary for him to make a call on whose version was correct and that the issue before the court was simply whether the DA had contravened its constitution when instituting disciplinary action against Bambeni which, he found, she hadn’t shown.

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“She has not pointed to any provision in [the DA’s] constitution that was not complied with. The [DA] in turn has established it has complied with its constitution by quoting the various provisions that would entitle it to make
the charges it has and the process it has followed,” Manoim said.

He also pointed to the fact that although she had been suspended, Bambeni had not been removed as councillor and was still being paid.

He added that the disciplinary proceedings had not been finalised and so the relief she was seeking was premature.
Neither the DA nor Bambeni responded to requests for comment yesterday.