THE DA is embroiled in a fresh sex scandal after the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) announced it was probing complaints of hate speech, gender inequality and sexual abuse against one of the party’s senior officials.
An investigation was launched into complaints levelled against Senzi Sibeko after he allegedly verbally abused women employees with a “rapid-fire, endless parade of insults,” Weekend Argus can reveal.
The SAHRC investigation into Sibeko, who is a Mayco member for water, sanitation and energy in the Ekurhuleni Municipality, will look into claims that he allegedly recruited women to work for the DA’s call centre during the municipal elections, used them for alleged “unsolicited sex” before firing then soon afterwards.
A source with inside knowledge who wished to remain anonymous said Sibeko was accused of being a “vicious woman-beater” whose attitude towards women was “something between disturbing and unacceptable”.
Professionally, he was difficult to work with, Weekend Argus was told, and was easily angered.
“He gave a female colleague a black eye because she apparently flirted with some other guy,” the source said.
The victim used to work in the DA’s East Region but was reportedly asked to resign when she brought up the matter to the party’s leaders. “I can confidently say he (Sibeko) is not a good person,” was all the former DA staffer was willing to say on the matter.
At the time of the alleged incident Sibeko, who refused to comment, was not part of the Mayco for Ekurhuleni.
“Guess what the DA did when they found out?” the source said. “They asked her to resign. So they encouraged the lady to resign and not the guy who beat her up.”
The source claimed that the chairperson of the DA federal council, Helen Zille, was one of the leaders who allegedly wanted the victim to resign after she came forward with her story.
Weekend Argus was unable to reach Zille by the time going to print. Various WhatsApp messages and cellphone calls went unanswered.
No criminal charges have been laid against Sibeko, who was re-elected as a councillor last year and elected as Gauteng East regional chairperson.
During the election campaign in Vosloorus, DA staffers allegedly witnessed Sibeko hold a woman staff member by the neck against a wall, the source said.
The victim reportedly approached a senior woman leader but nothing fruitful came of her complaint.
The source said incidents of violent attacks on women staff in the region were said to have continued during the election campaign season and were reported to the same senior leader but nothing came of the complaints.
In a separate incident, Sibeko apparently told a woman in the office that she had to “perform to his standards otherwise, as she had nothing to fall back on since her parents were dead,” said the source.
When he became the regional chair, he went back to the office and allegedly told staff that “he was back as a regional manager but with political power so he could fire whomever he wanted, when and wherever he wanted,” said the source.
Herman Mashaba, former DA Johannesburg mayor and the leader of ActionSA, told Weekend Argus that the allegations were “nothing new” but that it was time to take action.
“We will file a motion to get Sibeko suspended pending the outcome of the SAHRC’s investigation,” Mashaba told Weekend Argus.
SAHRC Gauteng head Buang Jones said they were investigating the complaints.
“We have received a complaint from an anonymous whistle-blower who makes a number of allegations against a member of the DA.
“The commission will consult with the whistle-blower and thereafter perform a full assessment of the matter to determine what steps to take,” Jones said.
The mayor of Ekurhuleni, Tania Campbell, referred all queries to the provincial DA leadership.
DA national spokesperson Richard Newton said no charges have been laid and that the matter was not reported to any party structure.
The DA has been marred by sex scandals in recent years.
In 2020, DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga was accused of sexual harassment by the former Gauteng DA member of the provincial legislature, Nkele Molapo.
Molapo alleged that the incident occurred in 2014, but Msimanga denied the allegation.
“This has been purely to tarnish my name and that of the party in order to save the complainant from probable expulsion from the party,” Msimanga said at the time.
Molapo was expelled from the party for leaking information to EFF leader Julius Malema in 2017.
Suspended DA councillor in the Ekurhuleni metro, Thina Bambeni, lost her legal bid to overturn her suspension in December after she accused the DA’s former chairperson of the caucus, Shadow Shabangu, of sexual harassment. In a transcript (from the party’s disciplinary panel), seen by Weekend Argus, Shabangu described the alleged harassment as nothing but “teasing” between colleagues.
“We always tease each other when we take our keys, can I have your room number? While we were signing for our keys there, we teased each other,” he testified in reply to Bambeni’s sexual harassment complaint in July 2018 before a DA Gauteng disciplinary panel. “I never thought that she took an offence to that.”
In the Western Cape, the scandal around former community safety MEC Albert Fritz resulted in Fritz being fired and he also resigned from the party.
“(The) premier has encouraged the complainants to lay criminal charges when they are ready to do so,” Premier Alan Winde’s spokesperson, Odette Cason, told Weekend Argus.