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JOHANNESBURG. – The African National Congress is inviting the public to make an input as the party rushes to finalise its internal sexual harassment policy amid sex scandals that rocked the party. Two of its spokespersons, Pule Mabe and Zizi Kodwa, asked to step down from their responsibilities following allegations of misconduct.

“The African National Congress has embarked on a process to finalise and implement a sexual harassment policy for all its employees across the country. The development of this policy is a consequence of an internal process where an employee laid a grievance of sexual harassment against her supervisor,” said the party’s acting spokesperson Dakota Legoete.

“The outcome of that process was, amongst others; a directive by the panel that reviewed the complaint, that the ANC must develop and implement an internal policy on sexual harassment within 90 days of the ruling.”

Legoete said they have to date developed a policy which is now up for “discussion and consultations with staff at national and provincial levels”.

“We will also consult with the ANC Women’s League and the ANC gender commission and we will set up an advisory panel to give more inputs. The ANC also plans to solicit inputs from the Commission on Gender Equality on the policy before presentation to the National Working Committee (NWC) and National Executive Committee (NEC) for adoption by the end of March 2019,” he said

The ANC’s social transformation committee member, Nocawe Mafu, said last Sunday that the ANC may not have its own sexual harassment policy but it has ensured that the public was protected at work places through the policy which is enshrined in the labour relations act.

Explaining why the party needed the public to comment on the policy they were working on, Legoete said in a statement yesterday: “This approach is premised on the acknowledgement that the manner in which the ANC, both as leader of society and a governing party, deals with sexual harassment in its internal environment is a public interest issue. Consequently, we invite members of the public to comment on the ANC’s draft sexual harassment policy.”

Comments should be submitted no later than 15 March, 2019.
Legoete said the draft policy will be made available on the ANC’s digital platforms for download. – News24