The Commission for Gender Equality has slammed health department superintendent-general Dr Thobile Mbengashe, saying he was unaware of the department’s policies on sexual harassment.
Mbengashe was subpoenaed by the commission to appear at an investigative hearing for allegedly failing to act on allegations of sexual harassment that were reported in the department last year.
The commission said Mbengashe was summoned after a woman employee in his department reported that nothing had been done to bring an alleged perpetrator to book since the sexual harassment case was reported.
Eastern Cape gender commissioner Nomsisi Bata told the Daily Dispatch that after meeting with Mbengashe behind closed doors at their Chiselhurst offices in East London, they were disappointed to find that the SG had been unaware of the department’s sexual harassment policy.
She said Mbengashe was brought in for questioning because of delays at departmental level in dealing with the matter.
She said the complaint was lodged with the department towards the end of 2017.
“The complainant approached our office because there had been no recourse since she had reported the sexual harassment case to the department.
Bata said they were shocked to find that senior officials were not familiar with a sexual harassment policy that was enacted in January last year.
“We realised that the SG’s office and the senior management were actually not aware of their own sexual harassment policy.
“It caused great concern to us that as an accounting officer he did not know his own department’s policy.”
Bata said sexual harassment cases were prominent in private and public departments within the province, ranging from sexual harassment to sex-for-jobs incidents or for marks requests made by officials.
She also said most cases revolved around power struggles, involving males in management positions and female employees at junior level.
“The tendency with provincial departments in the public and private sectors is that they don’t take institutions supporting constitutional democracy seriously.
“We are only likely to get them through subpoenaing them. We are pleased that the SG accepted their failures to carry out the processes and committed to rectifying the gaps,” Bata said.
Provincial health spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha declined to comment.
“We can’t discuss the discussions of that meeting until investigations are finalised and there are recommendations to be implemented by the department,” he said.
Sicwetsha said MEC Helen Sauls-August launched the approved sexual harassment policy for the department in Komani last week...