The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the North-West province notes with outrage the alleged rape of a woman, a worker who is a member of our affiliate, the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU), by a manager at Boxer Superstore in Taung. The Federation further notes that this was not an isolated act as two other women workers at the same store have since come forward with allegations against the same manager, revealing a pattern of predatory conduct that management, at the very least, failed to detect or act upon for far too long.
COSATU commends the courage of the victim for opening a case with the South African Police Service and commends SACCAWU North-West-Vaal Region for its swift response and support to the victim. The union, working with the COSATU Taung Local Gender and COSATU Provincial Gender substructures will be picketing at the Taung Magistrate’s Court this morning as a part of the campaign against gender-based violence and femicide and in support of the victim(s).
The Federation’s Dissatisfaction with the Granting of Bail
COSATU records its deep disgust with the decision of the Taung Magistrate’s Court to grant bail to the accused. While our courts are bound to apply the law, the Federation is deeply troubled that a man facing multiple, credible rape allegations connected to his position of authority in a workplace is now able to walk the streets freely, while the survivor and her co-workers remain unprotected and traumatised. The President of the country, in 2022, signed into law pieces of legislation aimed at affording greater protection to victims and survivors of gender-based violence and femicide and ensuring that perpetrators, irrespective of their status and standing, can no longer use legislative loopholes to evade prosecution. The Department of Justice and Correctional Services is therefore, tasked with the responsibility of implementing those reforms in the criminal justice system to ensure that the system prioritises survivors and their needs.
Furthermore, South Africa ratified the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Convention 190 which is aimed at eliminating violence and harassment in the world of work. According to this convention violence and harassment are defined broadly as a range of unacceptable behaviours and practices that aim at, result in, or are likely to result in physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm and this includes physical abuse, verbal abuse, bullying, mobbing, sexual harassment, threats and stalking.
Amendments to the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) and the Criminal and Related Matters and the fact that South Africa is a signatory to the ILO’s Convention 190 including the pandemic heights of the scourge of gender-based-violence and femicide should have at least been considered by the Taung Magistrate Court before granting bail to the perpetrator and used to deny him bail.
We therefore call on the Regional Court in Taung to treat this matter with the indignation it warrants and revoke the bail granted to the perpetrator. The Taung Regional Court should consider the survivor, her co-workers and witnesses who definitely needs protection from intimidation or victimisation, and hand down a sentence, upon conviction, that reflects the gravity of using managerial power to violate the right of the victim and workers in general to a safe work environment free from violence and harassment.
COSATU’s Position on Gender-Based Violence and Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
COSATU has long recognised that sexual harassment, sexual aggression and rape are forms of gender-based violence that constitute discrimination against, and abuse of, women. This is not a new or peripheral concern for our Federation: it is enshrined in the COSATU Code of Conduct on Sexual Harassment, adopted as far back as 1995, and carried forward through subsequent Congress resolutions and the COSATU Gender Policy, which identifies sexual harassment and gender-based violence as a violation of human rights, a form of discrimination, and a health and safety issue that employers are legally and morally obliged to address.
The Federation has consistently taken the position that gender-based violence in the workplace thrives where power is unaccountable. Women workers, particularly those in retail, hospitality and other vulnerable sectors, are often the least unionised, the most economically precarious, and therefore the most exposed to abuse by those who hold authority over their shifts, their wages and their continued employment. This case at Boxer Superstore is a textbook illustration of that danger: a manager entrusted with authority over women workers allegedly used that very authority to violate them.
COSATU reaffirms, without qualification, that women must be safe in the workplace. No worker should have to trade her dignity, her body or her safety for a wage. Senior and line managers who abuse positional power to pursue sexual conquest over the women they supervise are not merely guilty of misconduct; they are perpetrators of gender-based violence dressed in the authority of employment, and they must be treated as such by their employers, by the criminal justice system, and by society at large.
A Call to the Courts and to Employers
COSATU calls on the courts, magistrates and prosecutors handling gender-based violence cases arising from the workplace to become active partners with the labour movement in building safer workplaces for women. This means treating workplace-based sexual violence with the disdain it deserves, ensuring that bail decisions properly weigh the gravity of the offence and risk of intimidation of survivors and witnesses who often continue to work alongside, or in the same small town as, the accused; and delivering the swift, decisive justice that restores confidence to women workers that reporting abuse will not leave them more exposed than before.
COSATU further calls on Boxer and all employers in the private sector to conduct comprehensive and transparent investigations into the conduct of managers accused of perpetrating gender-based violence in line with the definition of the ILO on what constitutes gender-based violence and deal decisively with those found guilty of such acts. It is the responsibility of employers to ensure that every worker who has come forward is protected from any form of victimisation, to strengthen workplace sexual harassment policies and reporting channels, and to work with recognised trade unions to build workplace cultures in which no worker is abused by their managers as a result of power relations.
This matter is bigger than one accused, one store or one town. It speaks to the urgent, ongoing struggle to root out patriarchy and gender-based violence from every South African workplace. COSATU will not be silent while women workers are preyed upon by those meant to lead and protect them. We will keep abreast of developments in this case and will continue to mobilise alongside SACCAWU until the survivor and her colleagues receive justice.
Women’s safety in the workplace is non-negotiable. An injury to one is an injury to all.
For more information, please contact the COSATU North-West Provincial Secretary, Kabelo Kgoro on 067 410 4696.