Zizi Kodwa denies rape accusations, calls them ‘political blackmail and manipulation’

ANC acting spokesperson Zizi Kodwa denied an allegation that he raped a woman at a private event last year.

He said the letter sent to the party’s deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte “was riddled with “false accusations” and labelled it as a “dangerous attempt and political blackmail and manipulation”.

He said in a statement: “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.”

News broke on Saturday night that the ANC’s acting spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa, was accused of rape. He resumed his old duties after the party’s appointed spokesperson, Pule Mabe, was accused of sexual harassment and subsequently cleared.

Kodwa has not yet been criminally charged.

The complainant sent a letter to ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, who told eNCA: “The advice we have given to the complainant is that she needs to go to the criminal justice system with her complaint in the sense that this is different because there is difficulty between staff and membership. It is difficult because, in our understanding, it happened in a private party setting.

“Of course, that’s the allegation. Therefore the ANC cannot do anything about it in terms of finding relevant facts and investigating it properly. That is the work of the criminal justice system.”

The party therefore advised her to approach the police.

A decision is yet to be made on whether this will affect Kodwa’s duties.

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