Cape Town - Sexual harassment allegations against Theewaterskloof municipality deputy mayor John Michels have prompted the GOOD Party to charge him and institute a hearing.
The victim accused the GOOD Party of sitting on the investigation since September.
An affidavit to Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell by the alleged victim – wife to Michels’s colleague and GOOD councillor – is supplemented by an investigation which found a prima facie case against the deputy mayor.
Michels is accused of offering her a permanent job on condition that they had sex. Police allegedly mishandled her case and the GOOD Party allegedly dug in its heels. The report said the allegations were not comprehensive and could be amended when lawyers drew up a charge sheet.
“It is recommended that the councillor be afforded an opportunity to state reasons as to why he should not be suspended,” the report said.
Michels referred queries to his lawyer, David Prok, who hadn’t responded at the time of writing.
Theewaterskloof speaker Derek Appel (ANC) said Michels’s lawyer submitted a dispute of the Kruger and Blignaut report, citing a conflict of interest Appel didn’t expound on.
He said the report and Michels’s submission were tabled at a recent council meeting for a resolution.
The council appointed a Section 14 committee “to assess” both submissions, resolving to appoint another investigator to probe the case and allegations made against the Kruger & Blignaut investigation report.
Appel didn’t disclose the amount paid for the initial investigation.
Emails between the woman and GOOD show that, on February 6, she pressed for a response after initial silence.
A party lawyer, only referred to in the emails as Chad, responded: “Apologies for the radio silence, we are however busy doing the necessary investigations into your complaint, I will revert back to you once the process is completed, to determine your availability for a hearing (sic).”
In a complaint to GOOD secretary-general Brett Herron on September 12 last year, the woman accused Michels of approaching her “on numerous occasions with inappropriate suggestions and physical gestures”.
Speaking to the Cape Argus, Herron said: “According to the complainant there are no witnesses.
“Therefore the investigation relied on the complainant’s evidence and the accused’s response.
“The National Management Committee (NMC) resolved to charge the accused member and a disciplinary panel was recently appointed.
“There will thus be a hearing. In disciplinary matters where the accused member denied the allegations and produces their own evidence, the NMC cannot ‘believe’ one person or the other. The NMC will deal with the outcome of a formal process where the evidence is heard by a disciplinary committee once we have that outcome.”
She accused Michels of telling her, at a GOOD event, that he’s “interested” in her, that he wanted take her to Strand beach “that very evening” and that when she told him she’s married, Michels “said he’ll never stop until he gets what he wants, as he always get(s) what he wants in the end”.
“One late night in July he sent me a WhatsApp message while my husband was in bed with me - it was a kiss emoji. I showed this to my husband and he confronted him the next day. He apologised,” she wrote to Herron.
“Michels on several occasions used phrases like ‘you are oulik’, ‘you know you’re oulik’, and ‘you are lekker, lekker om lekker te kap, lekker te maak.
“He chooses most of the time(s) when I am alone, and no witness is around. This makes me very uncomfortable because he is my senior.”
A male official from the municipality filed a complaint alleging that the woman harassed him on August 26 - and Municipal Manager Boy Ngubo notified her that she needed to make representations on why she shouldn’t be suspended. An investigation exonerated her.