DA sacks Gauteng MPL who is accusing its provincial leader of sexual assault

The DA has sacked a Gauteng MPL currently involved in a public spat over a sexual assault case against its provincial leader, Solly Msimanga.

Nkele Molapo, who this week opened a case of sexual assault with the police, has been sacked by the party for allegedly leaking confidential information to the EFF.

Her sacking comes after she went public about allegedly being sexually assaulted by Msimanga in 2014.

Msimanga has denied the claim and insinuated that Molapo fabricated them because of the charges she was facing after he had opened the charges against her.

In a statement on Friday, Gauteng DA chief whip Mike Moriarty confirmed the sacking, saying it was with immediate effect.

“In contrast to the case presented by the party, [Molapo] denied the allegations by offering ostensibly only one defence - the fact that she was framed. This she did without giving any reasoning why this could have been the case, nor why she would be the target of such a plot, nor who the mastermind would have been behind such a plot against her.

"It is the view of the appeal panel that, on a balance of probabilities and in the absence of any substantive explanations provided by the appellant, the panel had no choice but to find that the only logical and probable course of events are those presented by the party,” said Moriarty.

He labelled the allegations by Molapo against Msimanga as “suspiciously timed”.

“Mr Msimanga outright denies these allegations, and sees it as an effort by Ms Molapo to smear his name in pre-emption of today’s serious finding against her, and the termination of her DA membership.

“It is sadly becoming an all too frequent practice for those found guilty in internal DA disciplinary processes to rapidly turn on the party to create counter-allegations to muddy the waters of their guilt. It is a practice we strongly denounce, and we continue to appeal to those found guilty to accept their outcomes without seeking to damage the party in retribution,” said Moriarty.

Molapo, in a statement released on her Facebook page, said she "had noted the media statement announcing termination of my party membership".

"My counsel and I are yet to receive official communication from the party. I will be consulting with my counsel on the way forward. There won’t be further media comments from me until such time," she said.

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