A spat over a parking space at the offices of the Cape Agulhas municipality (CAM) has blown up into a sexual harassment complaint against a manager and a union threat to go on strike.
The target of the complaint is on a shortlist of candidates for the vacant post of municipal manager, which a CAM panel will select on Thursday.
A source in the DA-run municipality said the drama began when Johan Jamneck, manager of expenditure, riled a colleague by taking two spaces in the office parking lot. The colleague called municipal traffic officers, who issued Jamneck with a ticket.
His response was to lodge a “harassment and victimisation” grievance against a female manager who he accused of having called the traffic officers. The grievance hearing on September 3 was chaired by an official who is in the running for municipal manager.
The woman, who has asked not to be identified, told the hearing Jamneck was lying about her calling the officers.
The hearing chair, according to the woman, “grabbed” her hand and told her to withdraw her comments. This, she said in a statement to the head of HR in the municipality, constituted sexual harassment, intimidation and abuse of power.
“[During the hearing] I was requested to respond to the allegations against me by Mr Jamneck. I know for sure what was said by Mr Jamneck was a lie and I said it was a lie. [The chair] used his right hand and restrained me physically by grabbing my hand and insisted I withdraw my words.
— Woman's statement to head of HR in the municipality
“[During the hearing] I was requested to respond to the allegations against me by Mr Jamneck,” the statement said. “I know for sure what was said by Mr Jamneck was a lie and I said it was a lie.
“[The chair] used his right hand and restrained me physically by grabbing my hand and insisted I withdraw my words,” her statement said.
She felt “uncomfortable, suppressed and undermined in my right to present my case without intimidation, and culturally disrespected as a black woman. I adamantly said: ‘Don’t touch me.’ I further told him he does not have the right to touch me without my consent. I was being manhandled in the workplace by a senior manager.”
The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) has sent two letters to mayor Raymond Ross demanding the man be removed from the shortlist of municipal manager candidates, citing the sexual harassment allegation and complaining the list was not demographically representative.
“Should you fail to comply, Samwu will escalate the matter by mobilising our members for a full-scale protected strike action until the injustice is remedied,” local union chair France Xinela said in one of the letters.
The official has rejected the accusations against him and demanded the woman and Samwu withdraw them and issue a formal apology, threatening to bring a defamation action if they fail to do so.
“The incident in question comprised a brief and instinctive gesture, lightly placing my hand on the complainant’s arm while requesting she permit the meeting to proceed in an orderly fashion,” he said in a letter to Ross, Samwu, the council speaker and other CAM officials.
“The gesture was immediately followed by a sincere apology. At no point did my conduct exhibit any sexual intent, aggression or impropriety.”
Calling his actions sexual harassment was “factually inaccurate and legally indefensible”, he said.
He sent TimesLIVE Premium affidavits from three others who were at the hearing, including Jamneck, that supported his version.
“I have to protect my reputation,” he said. “It’s a sad case. There is a lot of conflict at the municipality and people are taking sides, trying to destroy each other.”
He said the grievance case that precipitated the row had yet to be finalised.
The woman who brought the complaint told TimesLIVE Premium it “has not even been acknowledged by the people who received it that they have it, and what steps they intend to take. I do not have any idea what I can do. I trusted my employer would act swiftly on the matter. I can only live in fear of being ‘manhandled’ in meetings.”
Xinela said Ross had rejected the union’s demand that the manager be removed from the candidate list and Samwu would meet in the coming days to decide on its response.
Ross and CAM spokesperson Gurswin Prins did not respond to requests for comment.
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