On Tuesday 1 February, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) welcomed the progress made with South Africa’s National Register of Sex Offenders, but suggested that the register did not go far enough. The register lists those found guilty of certain sexual offences — the EFF says it should include even those who have yet to be found guilty.

The EFF “would have wanted that there be a register for people accused of these [GBV] offences, and whose cases are still before courts”, the party wrote in a statement.

“The EFF acknowledges that this would be an extraordinary step, as people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, the extent of gender-based violence in this country demands extraordinary measures.”

To say that people merely accused of gender-based violence should be effectively treated as guilty until proven innocent is a bold proposition from a party that has, on occasion, demonstrated something very different when it comes to its own leaders.

In its eight-year history, male EFF leaders have been accused of multiple crimes against women, from rape to murder — the latter charge referring to EFF Mpumalanga branch chair Ayanda Kabe, who handed himself over to police in November 2020 after allegedly shooting dead 21-year-old Palesa Moshoeshoe.

Kabe’s EFF membership was seemingly terminated immediately. But this approach has not been applied evenly.

In 2013, Daily Maverick published a story about senior Gauteng EFF official Patrick Sindane, who had been accused of participating in a 2008 gang rape. Sindane was never convicted because the sex worker who laid charges against him disappeared. But we spoke to four sources familiar with the case — including one who had met with the female victim after the alleged crime — who told Daily Maverick that the charges were sufficiently detailed and credible for Sindane to have been dismissed from his previous position at the Anti-Privatisation Forum after an investigation.

EFF: Two senior party officials accused of involvement in 2008 gang rape

Approached for comment, then EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi told Daily Maverick: “We will look into it.”

It appears that no action whatsoever was taken against Sindane.

(The EFF has refused to supply comment to Daily Maverick since the publication of articles linking its leaders to VBS corruption.)

In 2018, Sindane publicly confessed to beating up his girlfriend at the time, and was on that occasion briefly suspended by the EFF — before being reinstated.

Cut to January 2022, when Sindane was finally made to resign after a student EFF leader laid a charge of rape against him at Hillbrow police station.

For almost a decade, the EFF was aware that within the ranks of its leadership was a man who could plausibly be considered a danger to women. Yet it took two rape charges and an assault confession for the EFF to permanently (one hopes) part ways with Sindane.

There are other cases like Sindane’s.

The EFF’s Limpopo head, Jossey Buthane, has been accused of various forms of assault on multiple occasions in recent years.

In 2016, a Limpopo woman opened an assault case against Buthane, claiming that he had punched her and “exposed her breasts for all to see” during an EFF meeting which turned acrimonious. As reported by the Sowetan at the time, an EFF Limpopo branch published a picture showing the woman with bruises across her chest.

The Sowetan report read:

“The status update, which seemed to have been posted by the administrator of the page, stated that Buthane was involved in assaulting a ‘female fighter’. ‘I know some members will insult the admin for publishing organisation matters but fact remains this is wrong,’ the status update reads.”

There is no indication that Buthane was subjected to any disciplinary action by the EFF as a result of these allegations.

A year later, Buthane was accused of brutally assaulting his own aunt and nieces over an inheritance dispute. Again, there was no sign of a suspension.

Buthane also initially leapt to the defence of a senior Limpopo EFF member accused by a female colleague of rape in November 2017, stating that the man in question was “innocent before our eyes until proven otherwise by a court of law”.

One of the more egregious GBV episodes in the EFF’s short history happened in November 2017, when Maggie Klaas — a junior member of EFF North West deputy chairperson Bunga Ntsangani’s staff — took Ntsangani to court, claiming that he had assaulted her and threatened to cut off her clitoris.

In July 2019, the Mmabatho Magistrates’ Court found Ntsangani guilty of assault and crimen injuria. But by that stage, the only person to face EFF disciplinary processes over the matter was Klaas herself, who ended up being fired by the party in what the CCMA subsequently found was clearly a wrongful dismissal.

Klaas told City Press in 2019 that she had been vilified within the party for daring to lay a charge against Ntsangani, saying: “I have been under severe stress and emotional abuse from party members and supporters who did not believe my version of events and described me as an enemy of the EFF.”

Almost two years after Klaas laid charges against Ntsangani, EFF North West official Papiki Babuile told City Press: “Now that there is a judgement we will look into internal processes of the party to discipline Ntsangani.”

Of course, the EFF is not the only political party accused of taking too laissez-faire an approach when it comes to male leaders accused of gender-based violence. 

The ANC faced its own scandal in this regard over former deputy minister Mduduzi Manana in 2017 and the DA is currently facing accusations that it may have protected Western Cape MEC Albert Fritz, presently suspended over sexual assault allegations.

When it comes to the EFF, however, there is a particularly brazen gap between the party’s public rhetoric and its internal actions.

EFF leader Julius Malema has on at least two occasions in recent years publicly acknowledged that female support for his party lags far behind male support.

Perhaps an examination of the EFF’s handling of gender-based violence cases pertaining to its own leaders might provide Malema with at least one possible reason why this is the case. DM