by Lindiwe Mabena | Dec 23, 2020
“As I said from the get go – I was set on setting the record straight and clearing my name. One part is done, the next part is to make sure that there is a civil claim,” DA Gauteng leader, Solly Msimanga, has told Local Voices while reacting to the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision not to prosecute him for sexual harassment.
Msimanga says he has instructed his lawyers to proceed with the lawsuit against former DA Gauteng MPL, Nkele Molapo, who had accused him of sexual harassment.
Molapo says the incident occurred in 2014.
However, Msimanga says the NPA’s decision has vindicated him, proving that there is no case for him to answer.
The former Tshwane Mayor is confident that a court will rule in his favour in the lawsuit against Molapo.
He says after the civil claim – he will publish the real story behind the accusations. He says he has been receiving numerous calls from people who find themselves in the same boat as him.
“Because I think a lot of people in South Africa need to know what really happens and what is really happening. I mean this is not the first time that a political figure would be wrongfully accused and sometimes things just turn to die without it being followed. Families are destroyed and lives are destroyed. I am going to ensure that that’s not the case.”
Msimanga says false sexual harassment and rape allegations are problematic as they take away from the real cases that need attention. He says he wants the lawsuit against Molapo to deter other women from laying bogus claims against men.
“It is these bogus cases that go unabated that we now need to make sure that as much as we are talking about not in my name and wanting men to behave in a particular way, we should also be condemning women who are using this pandemic in South Africa for their own selfish and stupid personal gains or personal vendettas. This is something I am definitely not going to let go until a lesson is learnt and over and above that – we are going to make sure that anybody who thinks about doing this in future will have to think twice because there will be consequences.”
Molapo maintains that she was sexually harassed.
She plans requesting issuance of a nolle prosequi certificate from the NPA so that she can explore the possibility of private prosecution.
The certificate is a declaration by a prosecutor to the judge on a decision to drop a case.
by Lindiwe Mabena | Dec 22, 2020
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has decided not to prosecute DA Gauteng leader, Solly Msimanga, for sexual harassment.
Sacked DA Gateng MPL, Nkele Molapo, laid the charge against the former Tshwane Mayor early in October, accusing the politician of groping her while dropping her off from a function in 2014.
She had initially laid a complaint with the DA and later withdrew it, saying she no longer had confidence in the party’s internal process.
At the time of making the claim, Molopo was being probed for leaking strategic information to EFF leader, Julius Malema.
A charge that she was found guilty of and summarily expelled from the party.
The DA questioned her timing of the reporting on the alleged sexual harassment.
However, Molapo believes the DA was bias in the matter.
Now, she is insinuating that DA Federal Council Chairperson, Helen Zille, might have had prior knowledge that the NPA would drop the charge against Msimanga.
Molapo says prior to her meeting with the NPA, Zille wrote an article that “reads like it was written by someone who knew what the outcome would be.”
In the piece, titled Getting closer to the Truth for a Sex Scandal, the DA Federal leader questions the treatment of the harassment case against Msimanga by the media, among other issues.
Zille said despite numerous social media posts Molapo had written calling Msimanga “Eye Candy”, her “Monday Crush”; “King Solly”, no media house questioned Molapo’s motives for laying a charge six years after the alleged sexual harassment incident.
She accuses Molapo of having accelerated victimhood after realising that she stood no chance of winning the misconduct case against her.
Molapo says she will be officially writing to the NPA requesting issuance of a nolle prosequi certificate following their decision not to proceed with the sexual assault case.
“What I find particularly strange is that the prosecutor conceded that my version was more believable, and in fact went as far as saying that with the evidence before him, he doesn’t doubt that the incident did take place. However, he will not prosecute because of one minor thing that might let the accused off the hook. Even when I said that I’m willing to take the stand and be grilled by the defence on that technicality, he declined to prosecute because he has the discretion to do so.”
Molapo says she is seeking legal advice on the matter and might push for a private prosecution.
by Lindiwe Mabena | Oct 26, 2020
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has rejected the Democratic Alliance’s claims that axed Gauteng MPL Nkele Molapo leaked information to his party.
Last week, DA Gauteng chairperson Mike Moriarty said Molapo had been booted out of the party for giving the red berrets the party’s Tshwane caucus information.
“We have never spoken to her. I do not know her. I saw a headline that says a person has been expelled because she gave Malema information of the DA. No, the person who gives me the information of the DA is White; it is not a Black person. So, we are dealing with Whites who are concerned there at the DA that this thing is becoming racist and they are not racist. I have given some of them forms so I hope they will come soon. Very prominent Whites,” he told journalists at a press briefing in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
Molapo is also not rolling over and playing dead.
She is taking the party to court.
“After studying the DA’s irrational ruling and obtaining legal opinion on the same, I have decided to file for a review in the court of law, so as to have my case heard by an unbiased, fair and just body. After subjecting myself to all internal processes, approaching the court of law naturally becomes the next step,” she says in a statement.
Molapo says the notion that DA’s internal disciplinary hearing panels are firewalled against politics is a lie.
“Not only is the chairperson of the Federal Legal Commission (FLC) a member of the DA in Tshwane (Gauteng North region) but the chairperson of the panel that heard my appeal is married to a member of the DA in the same region. Both are au fait with the politics in the region.”
She believes that her disciplinary process was biased, unfair and its outcome was predetermined.
The Democratic Alliance is yet to respond to the developments. Acting DA Gauteng Communications Manager, Charity McCord, has told Local Voices that the party is still deliberating on the matter.
Molapo is also embroiled in a sexual harrasment tussle with the DA’s interim Gauteng leader and former Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga. She says the matter is with the police.
Msimanga has denied sexually harrassing Molapo and has laid a crimen injuria case against her.
by Lindiwe Mabena | Oct 16, 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has terminated Gauteng Member of the Provincial Legislature, Nkele Molapo’s, membership for leaking confidential information and strategy.
Her sacking means she also vacates the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.
The legal battle between the DA and Molapo had been raging for three years now.
“Ms Nkele Molapo’s guilt has been tried by a fair process of the DA Federal Legal Commission, and after she appealed, her guilt was confirmed by an Appeal Panel of the Federal Legal Commission. The sanction imposed upon Ms Molapo is the immediate termination of her Party membership, against which there are now no possible further internal appeals,” says the party.
Molapo leaked confidential information from the DA Tshwane government to the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in 2017.
Then City Mayor, Solly Msimanga, then lodged a case with the party’s Federal Legal Commission, which found Molapo guilty.
The party blames her “for handing the EFF some tactical political advantages which compromised our work.”
Molapo has denied leaking the documents, saying she had been framed.
She has told Local Voices that she and her lawyers are yet to receive official communication on the matter.
“I will be consulting with my counsel on the way forward. There won’t be further media comments from me until such time.”
Molapo’s expulsion comes amid sexual harrasment battle with Msimanga.
She alleges that the DA Gauteng interim leader groped her in 2014.
Msimanga has denied the charge and has opened a crimen injuria case against her.