Marais on 'autopilot'

2003-08-18 19:22

Cape Town - Former New National Party Western Cape premier and Cape Town mayor Peter Marais told the Cape High Court on Monday that he was caught "unawares" during a radio interview when asked by the plaintiff about sexual harassment allegations against him.

"I didn't think she (plaintiff Freda Adams) would have the temerity (to phone in)... her persistence caught me unawares."

Adams, a former provincial MEC, has launched a civil claim for defamation against Marais and former premier Gerald Morkel. Marais also faces a claim of sexual harassment.

Marais, who was being cross-examined by Fiona Gordon-Turner for Adams, told the court that in politics one sometimes "played the man and not the ball" and that this was why he had said during the phone-in interview that Adams was "kicked out of the provincial Cabinet" even though she had resigned.

Asked why it was necessary to tell the public that Adams had had a vision from God purportedly showing her that she was destined to attain great heights in her political career, Marais said: "She was so envious of me. She wanted my job all the time... (but) she never achieved her ambition. The woman lost out".

Marais said he did not have the benefit of legal counsel to confer with during the live radio interview on community radio station Voice of the Cape, and "didn't sit down and think what to say.

"I was on automation in politics and was trying to defend my good name and honour... I was not out of control, I was in another gear," he said, adding that it was his "angry gear".

Gordon-Turner said Marais had deliberately "embellished and distorted the facts" when he said during the live radio interview that Adams was herself guilty of sexual impropriety and had engaged in an illicit affair with her chauffeur.

"You deliberately said that... to give the public the impression that Adams was a licentious, adulterous, uncontrollable person who abused her power in a sexual way," said Gordon-Turner.

Marais said he was only responding to a "malicious" attack by Adams on his integrity and character, and "will leave it to the court to decide".

- SAPA