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The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa has noted with disgust a decision taken by the Mpumalanga Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of the governing ANC to re-appoint a member of its executive who has been accused of raping his twin 8-year old daughters.  The former MEC stands accused, together with his stepson of raping the little 8-year old girls.

The decision to re-instate the former MEC led to the relaxation of his bail conditions, and the pair are currently out on R20 000 bail. The party has justified its decision to re-instate him by saying that he has a right to participate in party activities. This is because the ANC at national level has not yet resolved the issue of whether members who are accused of corruption and serious criminal offences should step aside until they have been able to clear their names. 

It is truly alarming that the governing party can turn a blind eye to allegations of this nature, and consciously deploy a person knowing that he is facing such serious allegations. It is clearly evident that the ANC is only paying lip-service to the issue of Gender Based Violence. We are deeply disturbed by the profound lack of empathy and the careless disregard for the victims and their suffering.

Surely an allegation of child rape is serious enough that a person accused of something as heinous as this, should be removed, even temporarily pending the outcome of a  investigation? Is the ANC really so short of leaders that they feel the need to impose this particular leader on the people of Mpumalanga, and by extension, the country as a whole? To add salt to the wound, this is happening whilst we observe 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence. 

The ANC as the governing party had an opportunity to lead by example, by taking a principled stand against this scourge, but once again, they chose political expediency above the interests of the masses. They have shown the public once again why they do not deserve to govern. And now, the worst insult of all, rubbing a rape accused in the faces of his victims. Karl Marx told us that capitalism was barbaric, and so we should not be surprised that the ANC would stoop so low. 

Once again the judicial system has failed these victims as well by releasing the alleged perpetrators on bail. The media has reported that they received a hero’s welcome in their community. Victims of sexual assault and rape are often discredited and their allegations dismissed, and therefore the celebration that took place when the accused was released back into the community, sends a terrible message: that those who violate children can act with impunity. This is why NUMSA supports calls for bail to be denied for people who are facing serious charges, and that includes crimes of a sexual nature in order to protect victims. 

The ANC is a brutal instrument of the capitalist machinery. This is expressed in the failed neo-liberal capitalist economic policies which have caused undue suffering on the working class and the poor for more than 20 years. Today South Africa is the most unequal society on earth and this is because the party refused to uproot the racist, colonial foundations of the economy.  Mass exploitation of the black and African working class is remains a fundamental hallmark of South Africa’s capitalist system. Women are exploited in the workplace and they are brutalized in their homes – we are an extremely violent society, especially towards women and children. 

NUMSA held a webinar yesterday on Workplace Sexual Harassment and Violence to strengthen the work we need to do to fight against harassment in the workplace. Various speakers gave an overview and highlighted challenges and possible solutions to tackling the scourge. Women are violated at work on a daily basis at work and we need to ensure that the workplace is a safe space. 

Ultimately the capitalist system which perpetuates inequality must be destroyed. We need a new world order, where the well-being of the working class majority and in particular, women and children are put first, ahead, of the needs of the wealthy elite. The working class in South Africa defeated Apartheid by being united. We will need to unite again in order to overthrow the racist patriarchal, capitalist system. The scourge of gender based violence can only be eradicated when men and women work together to fight for its destruction. It is only the working class which has the power to fundamentally transform society, abolishing capitalism and the class and racial inequalities that gender oppression is rooted in.

Issued by NUMSA