Ambassador: New complaint

2003-07-30 15:30

Cape Town - The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Wednesday that a new sex complaint has been lodged against South Africa's ambassador to Indonesia, Norman Mashabane.

It also confirmed Mashabane is still at his post more than a year after being found guilty in an internal disciplinary hearing on 21 workplace sexual harassment charges.

The hearing recommended in December 2001 that he be sacked, but he appealed and was allowed to continue in his post pending the outcome of the appeal.

In October last year, and again in March, the department told Sapa the appeal was under consideration by Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

General secretary of the Public Servants' Association Anton Louwrens said from Pretoria that the latest complaint was by a woman employee at the embassy in Jakarta.

It was brought to the union's attention by the woman, a union member, about a month ago.

The union had, through its attorneys, sent a letter to the department demanding that it urgently rectify the situation, as the woman was still at her workplace and the ambassador was still at his post.

"It is an unbearable situation," Louwrens said. "You cannot allow a person that is found guilty of harassing an employee to keep working in that situation."

He also said he understood that over the past weekend officials from Pretoria had been in Jakarta to attend to the matter.

"What exactly happened I don't know," he said.

The department confirmed on Wednesday that it received the second complaint of sexual harassment in June this year.

The matter was "currently being investigated by departmental officials".

Mashabane's original harassment case was one of a spate of disciplinary actions launched by the department in late 2001 against senior diplomats at foreign missions.

Mashabane could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

- SAPA