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Zuma's daughter Thuthukile calls for Enoch Godongwana to step aside amid sexual harassment claim

Zuma's daughter Thuthukile calls for Enoch Godongwana to step aside amid sexual harassment claim
Queenin Masuabi
By Queenin Masuabi
17 Aug 2022
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The daughter of former president Jacob Zuma says the ANC has its own perpetrators of gender-based violence, one of whom is Enoch Godongwana.

There have been growing calls for Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to step aside following an allegation against him of sexual harassment. The latest to voice their opinion on the matter is ANC Youth League National Task Team member Thuthukile Zuma, a daughter of former president Jacob Zuma. 

In a video which made the rounds on social media on Wednesday, Zuma tells a small crowd of people in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape — where she was attending a court sitting in support of an assault victim, Zintle Msindwana — that the ANC has its own perpetrators of gender-based violence, one of whom is Godongwana. 

“We ourselves have leaders who have been accused of being perpetrators and we are saying to these leaders that we might love you but as soon as you have an accusation of being a perpetrator of gender-based violence you must do the honourable thing; you must step aside. Not the factional step-aside of the ANC, but you must step aside because you take the gender struggle seriously. 

“So, the likes of your Enoch Godongwana must step aside because he must show that as a leader of society and a leader of the ANC he takes the gender struggle seriously. He must step aside and allow the courts to take their course without embroiling the name of the ANC and GBV in one sentence,” she said.  

The party’s step-side guidelines state that anyone in the organisation who has been formally charged or indicted with a criminal offence should relinquish their responsibilities in the party or public office until they are cleared.  




It has been reported that a woman who was offering massage services to guests of Kruger Shalati at Skukuza in the Kruger National Park opened a case against Godongwana after he allegedly made sexual advances towards her.  Kruger Shalati outsources the massage treatments to a small business in the area, which directly employs the alleged victim in this matter. 

The 65-year-old minister has denied the allegations but has not spoken any further on the matter.  

“Minister Godongwana categorically denies this allegation. At the time of the alleged incident, the minister was in his room together with his wife, who said there is no basis for the allegations,” said his spokesperson, Mfuneko Toyana.  

It has been reported that the matter will be discussed by the ANC’s Integrity Commission at its next sitting. 

Meanwhile, the EFF issued a statement shortly after the story broke, saying that Godongwana would have resigned with immediate effect if he respected women. 

“If the State President, Cyril Ramaphosa, could just pretend to uphold his oath of office, he would have fired his Minister of Finance. But South Africa is governed by patriarchal and misogynistic filth that it embeds in every aspect of our society. 

“Gender-based violence and femicide will continue to flourish because those in power are the forefront perpetrators of these crimes. If it is not a sitting head of state, Ramaphosa, torturing his woman domestic worker, it is his Minister of Police normalising the rape of women by men with unprovoked utterances that women are lucky to be raped once, and now a Minister of Finance [allegedly involved in] sexual violence against a woman worker,” the party said. 

#NotInMyName Secretary-General Themba Masango said the minister should vacate office until the matter is dealt with.

“We are aware that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is yet to formally hear from the police on the charges of sexual harassment opened against him, even though he has categorically denied the allegations. We are appealing to the minister’s conscience, and urge him to vacate his public office until this matter has been dealt with,” said Masango.



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ANC sexual harassment policy


The ANC, in 2019, announced that the party would adopt a sexual harassment policy which was drawn up following several incidents in which young employees of the party complained about sexual harassment. One of the allegations was made against party spokesperson Pule Mabe. 

Mabe was cleared of sexual harassment and misconduct by the ANC’s grievance panel. However, the party paid a R50,000 settlement to the victim after she rejected the findings and took her case to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

Other members who have been embroiled in such cases include Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu, who was cleared. Former Beaufort West mayor Truman Prince was sacked in 2005 after being found guilty by an ANC disciplinary committee of sexual misconduct. 

The draft policy states that the purpose of the policy is to ensure that “organisational spaces are free of sexual harassment, sexual favours, intimidation and victimisation, where all stakeholders respect one another’s integrity, dignity, privacy and the right to equality”.

At the time, the policy was exclusive to internal ANC cases. DM 

This story was factually updated on 18 August 2022.

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