Rulumeni has been a DA member since 2011. The toilet interview was her second shot at becoming a councillor, her first application having been rejected prior to the 2016 elections.
She told the East London High Court, where she lodged a civil claim against the DA, that she was accused of lying about fundraising for the party at the earlier interview, despite having produced documents showing the fundraising work she had done.
At her next interview, she alleged she was whisked into a toilet and given only 5 minutes to prepare for an experience which left her humiliated.
She said her treatment reminded her of apartheid, particularly because the interviewers were white. She also mentioned that one of the people interviewing her in the female toilets was male.
According to Rulumeni, she failed the second interview because it was impossible to function properly under the conditions. She said the “ablution facilities, racial dynamics, and the male-in-female-facility made it unbearable”.
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This is why she is suing her party not only for the humiliation but for loss of income due to failing the interview.
DA Eastern Cape leader Nqaba Bhanga told The Citizen he would await the outcome of the case and that the party had a responsibility to protect its members.
Bhanga was asked what his reaction would be if the woman’s story was true and the incident did indeed have racial overtones. He would only say that Mmusi Maimane had been clear that the party was not tolerant of racism. He told The Citizen he had no opinion of his own on the matter.
Bhanga is the DA’s premier candidate for the 2019 elections. The news that he would be running was met with controversy earlier this year as Bhanga had been implicated in an unfortunate incident allegedly involving his girlfriend in July.
In July this year, the DA said it would be investigating what happened in a fatal accident involving Bhanga’s bodyguard.
Reports emerged last year in October that Bhanga was at a shebeen when he allegedly sent his bodyguard in his Nelson Mandela Bay council car during the early hours of the morning to pick up his girlfriend from a residence at Nelson Mandela University.
The bodyguard was later involved in a fatal accident in Algoa Park in which two people, including the young woman, were killed.
The DA was meant to have investigated the circumstances of the incident, but it is still unclear what the findings were or what steps were taken in relation to it.
